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Seoul crushers

MARCH MADNESS: North Korean soldiers march in Pyongyang, North Korea, yesterday as their state threatened a holocaust on the Western world. (
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North Korea threatened to snuff out the South Korean prime minister yesterday and warned residents of a South-controlled archipelago to evacuate — because “nuclear war may break out.”

“Even an accidental spark by the belligerents in their war games can grow into a fire, and the damage for those living along the border and on the five western islands will be great,” warned a statement published by the state-controlled Web site Uriminzokkiri.

The warmongering rhetoric by dictator Kim Jong-un’s regime comes after South Korea Prime Minister Chung Hong-won’s visit last week to the now-targeted Yeonpyeong islands, which stand about six miles from the North Korean coast.

Kim vowed that the US ally Chung would be the “first target to be mowed down.”

While at Yeonpyeong — which was hit by the North’s artillery in 2010 — Chung reassured residents and promised retaliation, “with 10 times the force,” if Kim strikes the vulnerable group of islands.

In the North’s previous attack on the island, four people were killed and 19 injured.

Chung’s visit to the islands came just days after Kim visited artillery units on a nearby North Korean island and instructed troops to kill without mercy.

“All the enemies quite often playing with fire in the sensitive hot spot should be thrown into a caldron once I issue an order,” said Kim, according to the dictator’s official mouthpiece, the Korean Central News Agency.

“Once an order is issued, you should break the waists of the crazy enemies, totally cut their windpipes, and thus clearly show them what a real war is like,” he added.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se vowed yesterday to maintain a strong US-South alliance and cooperate to deter the North Korean threat, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

Kerry is scheduled to be in Seoul next month as part of his first official Asia trip.