North Korea is once again threatening to attack U.S. personnel and the U.S. homeland if joint military exercises with South Korea seem to be a danger to their dear leader. Reuters reports on the latest crazy talk issuing today from the North:

“All the powerful strategic and tactical strike means of our revolutionary armed forces will go into preemptive and just operation to beat back the enemy forces to the last man if there is a slight sign of their special operation forces and equipment moving to carry out the so-called ‘beheading operation’ and ‘high-density strike,'” the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army said in a statement carried by state media.

It said its first target would be South Korea’s presidential Blue House, while U.S. military bases in Asia and on the U.S. mainland would be its secondary targets. About 28,500 U.S. troops are based in South Korea.

North Korea issues these threats fairly regularly. Last September the regime warned they could unleash nuclear weapons against the United States if our nation continued to “behave mischievously.” That was preceded by another threat to attack the U.S. with nuclear missiles in May. And in February of last year, right before the same annual joint military exercises with South Korea were set to take place, the North threatened the U.S. with “final doom.” In case you were wondering, they were not threatening us with a collection of 90’s video games but, you guessed it, “precision and diversified nuclear striking means.”

As repetitive as the North Korean threats are, it’s worth remembering that the “satellite launch” the country carried out earlier this month was really a ballistic missile test. The rocket’s 200kg payload is considered too small to carry any useful satellite but the goal is clear enough. North Korea is trying, however feebly, to advance its technology to the point it might be able to actually carry out some of the threats is makes as a matter of course.

Today the Washington Post published a long list of sanctions already in place against North Korea, including some added recently by the United States. But the best news in this regard was pointed out by Jazz Shaw yesterday: Chinese banks have reportedly frozen accounts belonging to the North. Apparently that wasn’t enough to stop the regime from issuing its annual threats to nuke the United States but it may be a sign that China has belatedly taken responsibility for making sure the North knows there are some lines that cannot be crossed.