North Korea threatened South Korea Thursday over the possible deployment of a U.S. anti-missile defense system in the South, saying it would only trigger an arms race between the Koreas.
  

A spokesman for the National Peace Committee of Korea, a propaganda organ, issued a statement condemning the move as an "unpardonable provocation" against North Korea and a "hideous sycophantic and traitorous act that may bring nuclear holocaust to the nation and reduce South Korea into the most dangerous nuclear outpost in the world," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in an English dispatch, monitored in Seoul.
  

The deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery in South Korea has been a major defense and political issue in Seoul amid strong objections from China and Russia.
  

The United States has said it is not in any stage to discuss the deployment of THAAD to South Korea.
  

"The South Korean forces claim the deployment of THAAD in South Korea is to counter 'nuclear threats from the North,'" the spokesman said, according to the KCNA.
  

"We will never remain an on-looker to the dangerous moves for the deployment of THAAD being staged by the puppet forces in collusion with the U.S. but bolster nuclear deterrence for self-defense for the supreme interests of the country, security of the nation and the peace of the region," it added. (Yonhap)