North Korea just issued a truly terrifying threat to the United States through its embassy in Moscow in which it said it would use its nuclear weapons against America in what it said would be “a particularly sensational event.”

The threat was funneled to the U.S. through the Russian state-owned TASS news agency, which claims to have received the threat last weekend in the form of a statement.

“This year, the U.S. military has been carrying out various kinds of military maneuvers in South Korea and its vicinity with the purpose of striking North Korea quickly,” the embassy was quoted as saying. “A new round of the Korean War will add a particularly sensational event to the history of mankind, which will put an end to another empire, whose name is the United States,”

The New York Post reported that this statement came in days before the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, which began on June 25, 1950.

This comes as North Korea has become increasingly aggressive against its arch nemesis of South Korea. Last week, North Korean dictator authorized his sister Kim Yo Jong to give the order that a liaison office between the North and the South to be blown up. Kim Yo Jong slammed South Korea as “the enemy” when announcing the explosion of the office, which had been operated for two years.

“By exercising my power authorized by the supreme leader, our party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” she said. “If I drop a hint of our next plan the (South Korean) authorities are anxious about, the right to taking the next action against the enemy will be entrusted to the General Staff of our army. Our army, too, will determine something for cooling down our people’s resentment and surely carry out it, I believe.”

Ramon Pacheco Pardo, lecturer in international relations at King’s College London, speculated as to why Kim Yo Jong likely wanted to escalate tensions with South Korea right now.

“It makes sense for Kim Yo Jong to lead, or be seen as leading, these increasing tensions. This way she can show that she will be tough with South Korea if necessary,” he said. “It makes sense for North Korea to focus on raising tensions with South Korea, at least until we know the outcome of the U.S. November election and we can see what type of dynamic relations between Washington and Pyongyang will follow next year.”