North Korea nuclear threat: North Korean video shows imagined attack on Washington

A new North Korean propaganda video shows images of what appears to be an imagined missile attack on U.S. government buildings in Washington, including the White House and the Capitol.

The roughly 4-minute video was posted Monday on the YouTube channel of the North Korean government website Uriminzokkiri.

It carries a montage of clips of different weapons, including artillery guns firing and large missiles on display at military parades.

Just before the three-minute mark, it cuts to footage of the White House in an electronic sight's crosshairs, and then a simulated explosion of the Capitol's dome.

At the same time, the voice narrating the video says, "The White House has been captured in the view of our long-range missile, and the capital of war is within the range of our atomic bomb."

Analysts say that North Korea is still years away from being able to target nuclear missiles at the United States.

But the video's release comes amid spiking tensions between Pyongyang and Washington after the U.N. Security Council voted to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea following its latest nuclear test last month.

In a slew of angry rhetoric in response to the U.N. vote, North Korea has threatened to carry out a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the United States and South Korea and said it was nullifying the armistice agreement that stopped the Korean War in 1953.

Although U.S. officials say they don't believe North Korea is in a position to strike the United States at the moment, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week announced plans to deploy additional ground-based missile interceptors on the West Coast as part of efforts to enhance the nation's ability to defend itself from attack.

This isn't the first time a North Korean propaganda video has evoked the prospect of an attack on the United States.

A video posted on YouTube last month, before the North carried out its most recent underground nuclear test, depicted a city resembling New York with its skyscrapers on fire.

That video was subsequently removed after the video game maker Activision said those scenes had been lifted from its top-selling game "Call of Duty."