Kin Cheung / AP, file

Former South Korean "comfort woman," Kim Bok-dong, 87, front, who was forced to serve for the Japanese Army as a sexual slave during World War II, seen here in April.

TOKYO -- The outspoken mayor of Osaka is under fire not only from the government but from members of his own party for saying that the use of “comfort women,” some of whom were forced into prostitution, during World War II was necessary for the morale of Japanese soldiers.

Toru Hashimoto, co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party, made the comments during a news conference Monday.

“Whether it was of their own volition or against their will, the comfort women system was something necessary,” he said. “For military morale back then, it was probably necessary.”

The comments brought a quick backlash from senior Japanese politicians.

One of the strongest rebuttals came from a top official in Hashimoto’s own party.

“This is not something that’s coming out of our party. I think Mr. Hashimoto was expressing his own private opinions,” said Sakihiti Owaza, a senior official in the Japan Restoration Party. “If these comments continue, we will need to look into his true intentions and put a stop to this.”

Toru Yamanaka / AFP - Getty Images, file

Osaka Mayor and co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party Toru Hashimoto, seen here in 2012.

Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet secretary in the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, declined to directly criticize Hashimoto; doing so would be considered inappropriate because they are members of different parties.

He said, however, that the government’s position on the matter was clear: "The issue of comfort women is an experience of an unspeakable, painful suffering for which we also feel extreme anguish.”

Cabinet Minister Tomoko Inada did not let the protocols of political politeness stand in her way.

“It might not be appropriate to comment on what has been said by a leader of another party, but I believe the system of comfort women was a tremendous violation of women's human rights,” she said.

Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura said he heard about the comments while on visits to Washington and London and he thought they had been not been “properly understood” by foreign media.

Despite that, given the tensions between Japan and its Pacific neighbors, he said that “the timing of Mr. Hashimoto’s comments couldn’t have been worse.”

“I strongly wonder where there was anything positive in making these comments,” he said.

Hashimoto’s remarks about comfort women represented a break with what has become a Japanese tradition.

In 1994, then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issued an official apology for Japan's conduct before and during the war, including the treatment of those who came to be known as comfort women. Since then, subsequent administrations have upheld Murayama’s apology.

On Monday, Hashimoto agreed that it was important to accept Japan's role as an aggressor in the war and apologize for its atrocities, but he argued that other countries have had brothels for their troops.

"When a group of men is risking their lives, when this group of men are in a psychologically tense state,  … anyone could understand that they would need something like the comfort women system," he said.

By Tuesday, there was evidence that Hashimoto might be stepping back a bit – but not retreating.

"Just because it was right at the time, obviously you cannot justify it today,” he wrote in a Twitter post.

NBC News’ John Newland contributed to this story.

Related:

• Japan, US agree N. Korea must not have nukes
• Okinawa base plan meets protests
• More Japan coverage from NBC News

A bomb attack on allied forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday marked the first time the Taliban has been able to effectively strike the heavily armored Mastiff personnel carrier, British officials said.

“It’s the first time personnel inside a Mastiff have been killed by an IED [improvised explosive device],” a Ministry of Defense official said.

Based on the Cougar mine-resistant vehicle made by U.S. defense giant General Dynamics, the Mastiff is designed specifically to protect soldiers from improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades, the firm says on its website.

The company says the 21-ton Cougar vehicle has “withstood literally thousands of IED/landmine attacks” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A General Dynamics spokesman in the U.S. declined to comment, saying he would defer to Britain's defense ministry.

The ministry declined to give details of the incident, though it said in a statement that the three British soldiers who were killed were inside the vehicle and that they "received immediate medical attention" and were airlifted to a military hospital "but could not be saved."

Reuters file

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron walks past Mastiff armored vehicles at Camp Bastion, outside Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in December 2012.

Nine Afghans also died in the blast, and six other British soldiers were wounded, according to Reuters. The military has not given specifics about where the Afghans and other soldiers were in relation to the 10-person vehicle.

The attack in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province came just two days after the Taliban announced the start of its annual spring offensive, which it said would be “monumental.”

Gen. Richard Dannatt, former head of the British Army, told BBC's Radio 4 that the incident was a matter of “invention and counter-invention” as the Taliban tries to stay ahead of the armoring technologies of the military.

"The Taliban have found a way of countering the protective qualities and characteristics of the Mastiff,” he told Radio 4.

"It would seem that this was an extremely large bomb that was so powerful that actually it was able to cause fatalities within the vehicle itself. I've not seen a technical report, but my understanding in talking to the Ministry of Defense is that in all probability it was a very large device in terms of the amount of explosive and it may well have physically lifted up the vehicle and possibly even turned it over."

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

The Taliban took credit for the attack in a statement, adding: "It was a very heavy explosion and we have destroyed their tank."

NP Aerospace, the British company that outfits the Mastiff once it is shipped from the U.S., declined to comment on the vehicle’s capabilities.

“All our sympathy and condolences go to the families and friends of the soldiers tragically killed,” the company said through a spokesman.

The soldiers killed were all from the Royal Highlands Fusiliers, 2^nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said in an interview with Britain’s Sky News that the incident points to the danger even as British involvement in the war winds down.

“That process of withdrawal in itself is going to be extremely dangerous and will have to be extraordinarily well managed,” Salmond said. “The most dangerous thing in terms of our troops in Afghanistan has been the roadside devices affecting the armored vehicles. The soldiers obviously knew the risk they were running, but that doesn't make it any easier for the families or indeed for the rest of the regiment.”

NBC News' Peter Jeary and Akbar Shinwari contributed to this report.

Related:

• Taliban marks start of offensive with deadly attack
• Full Afghanistan coverage from NBC News

Bilal Hussein / AP

Pro-Syrian-government fighters from Lebanon stand guard at the border of the two countries on April 12. The head of Lebanon-based Hezbollah has threatened that his heavily armed group, backed by Iran, may become further involved in the battle against forces trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

BEIRUT -- The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group said Tuesday that Syrian rebels will not be able to defeat President Bashar Assad's regime militarily, warning that Syria's "real friends," including his Iranian-backed militant group, were ready to intervene on the government's side.

Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite Muslim group, is known to back Syrian regime fighters in Shiite villages near the Lebanon border against the mostly Sunni rebels fighting to topple Assad. The comments by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah were the strongest indication yet that his group was ready to get far more involved to rescue Assad's embattled regime.

"You will not be able to take Damascus by force and you will not be able to topple the regime militarily. This is a long battle," Nasrallah said, addressing the Syrian opposition.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

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"Syria has real friends in the region and in the world who will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of America or Israel."

Hezbollah and Iran are close allies of Assad. Rebels have accused them of sending fighters to assist Syrian troops trying to crush the two-year-old anti-Assad uprising, which the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people.

Deeper and more overt Hezbollah involvement in the Syrian conflict is almost certain to threaten stability in Lebanon, which is sharply split along sectarian lines, and between supporters and opponents of Assad. It also risks drawing in Israel and Iran into a wider Middle East war.

Nasrallah said Tuesday there are no Iranian forces in Syria now, except for some experts who he said have been in Syria for decades. But he added: "What do you imagine would happen in the future if things deteriorate in a way that requires the intervention of the forces of resistance in this battle?"

Hezbollah has an arsenal that makes the group the most powerful military force in Lebanon, stronger than the national army. Its growing involvement in the Syrian civil war is already raising tensions inside the divided country and has drawn threats from enraged Syrian rebels and militants.

Nasrallah also said his fighters had a duty to protect the holy Shiite shrine of Sayida Zeinab, named for the granddaughter of Islam's Prophet Muhammad and located south of Damascus.

He said rebels have captured several villages around the shrine and have threatened to destroy it.

"If the shrine is destroyed things will get out of control," Nasrallah said, citing the 2006 bombing of the Shiite al-Askari shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra. That attack was blamed on al Qaeda in Iraq and set off years of retaliatory bloodshed between Sunni and Shiite extremists that left thousands of Iraqis dead and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

In recent weeks, government troops have overrun two rebel-held Damascus suburbs and a town outside the capital. They also have captured several villages near the border with Lebanon as part of their efforts to secure the strategic corridor running from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast, which is the heartland of the president's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Related:

• Obama: 'Some evidence' Syria used chemical weapons
• Bomb blast in Syria's capital kills at least 13
• 6 killed as bomb targets Syria's prime minister

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the United States has evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria’s brutal civil war but that it remains unclear who used them.

In a White House press conference, Obama said there is “some evidence” that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad used the weapons, but urged against rushing to judgment, saying more facts must be known before any action taken.

“We don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them," the president said, adding "we don't have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened."

He reiterated that the administration needs more intelligence before before he’s willing to entertain any kind of escalation in Syria.

“When I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action in terms of chemical weapons use, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts,” he said.

As in the past, Obama referred to chemical weapons use as a “game-changer.” He gave no indication, however, that the United States or its allies would step up action against the Assad regime, adding that as long ago as last year he had asked the Pentagon to prepare options on Syria. Obama declined to elaborate on any plans in the works.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

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“By ‘game-changer’ I mean that we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us,” he said.

“Obviously, there are options … that are on the shelf right now that we have not deployed,” the president added.

Obama's caution about launching any military action against Syria in the absence of firm evidence of the use of chemical weapons likely stems from his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who has been criticized for starting the Iraq war over claims of weapons of mass destruction that never materialized.

"If we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, then we can find ourselves in the position where we can't mobilize the international community to support what we do," he said.

The primary incident of alleged chemical weapons use came on March 19, when rebel and government forces were engaged in heavy fighting in a strategically important town near the city of Aleppo.

Syria’s state news agency SANA said 25 people were killed and dozens more were injured; they blamed the attack on rebels.

Rebel forces, meanwhile, said government forces had delivered a chemical agent with a Scud missile.

Both sides described civilians panicking, having breathing difficulties and convulsing, and both sides continue to blame each other.

Regional reaction
Countries in the region have been watching with growing concern at the worsening conflict in Syria, none more so than Israel. 

Slideshow: The lives of Syrian rebels

NBC News

People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.

Launch slideshow

"The main risk for Israel is that chemical weapons end up in the hands of the Hezbollah or the hands of any jihadist," said Dr. David Friedman, a chemical and biological weapons expert at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "If they do then all the world needs to be afraid of this."

Nonetheless, he said, Israel wasn't pressuring Obama to intervene in Syria.

Gamal Abdel Gawad, a political science professor at the American University in Cairo, said that Obama would likely not react with an all-out military intervention.  

"Its a good idea (not to intervene militarily). The risks are very high," he said.  "Rule number one in military intervention is to know how to get out. There is no answer to this question. You are playing with adversaries that have a lot of potential and resources."

Obama’s comments came on a day when a bombing in central Damascus killed at least 13 people and injured scores more, according to state media and the Britain-based Human Rights Watch.

Syria’s two-year civil war has claimed more than 70,000 lives, according to the United Nations.

The U.S. and other countries have provided aid to rebels but have stopped short of committing to further involvement in the battle to overthrow Assad.

NBC News's Paul Goldman and Charlene Gubash contributed to this report. 

Related:

Obama cautions against rush to action in Syria

Obama reiterates chemical weapons would be 'game-changer'

More NBC News coverage of Syria

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:48 AM EDT

AP

This combination of two citizen journalist images provided by Aleppo Media Center shows damage to famed 12th century Umayyad mosque before and after the minaret was toppled in fighting there Wednesday.

BEIRUT — The 11th-century minaret of a famed mosque that towered over the narrow stone alleyways of Aleppo's old quarter collapsed Wednesday as rebels and government troops clashed in the streets around it, depriving the ancient Syrian city of one of its most important landmarks.

President Bashar Assad's government and the rebels trying to overthrow him traded blame over the destruction to the Umayyad Mosque, a UNESCO world heritage site and centerpiece of Aleppo's walled Old City.

"This is like blowing up the Taj Mahal or destroying the Acropolis in Athens. This mosque is a living sanctuary," said Helga Seeden, a professor of archaeology at the American University of Beirut. "This is a disaster. In terms of heritage, this is the worst I've seen in Syria. I'm horrified."

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a commercial hub, emerged as a key battleground in the nation's civil war after rebels launched an offensive there last summer. Since then, the fighting has carved the city into rebel- and regime-held zones, killed thousands of people, forced thousands more to flee their homes and laid waste to entire neighborhoods.

The Umayyad Mosque complex, which dates mostly from the 12th century, suffered extensive damage in October as both sides fought to control the walled compound in the heart of the old city. The fighting left the mosque burned, scarred by bullets and trashed. Two weeks earlier, the nearby medieval covered market, or souk, was gutted by a fire sparked by fighting.

With thousands of years of written history, Syria is home to archaeological treasures that date back to biblical times, including the desert oasis of Palmyra, a cultural center of the ancient world. The nation's capital, Damascus, is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world.

At least five of Syria's six World Heritage sites have been damaged in the fighting, according to UNESCO, the U.N.'s cultural agency. Looters have broken into one of the world's best-preserved Crusader castles, Crac des Chevaliers, and ruins in the ancient city of Palmyra were damaged. Both rebel and regime forces have set up bases in some of Syria's significant historic sites, including citadels and Turkish bath houses, while thieves have stolen artifacts from museums.

The destruction of the minaret — which dated to 1090 and was the oldest surviving part of the Umayyad Mosque — brought outrage and grief.

"What is happening is a big shame," said Imad a-Khal, a 59-year-old Christian businessman in Aleppo. "Thousands of tourists used to visit this site. Every day is a black day for Syrians."

The main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, accused the government of intentionally committing "a crime against civilization and humanity" by destroying the minaret.

"The regime has done all it can to tear apart the Syrian social fabric," the Coalition said in a statement. "By its killings and destruction of heritage, it is planting bitterness in the hearts of the people that will be difficult to erase for a long time to come."

There were conflicting accounts about what leveled the minaret, leaving the once-soaring stone tower a pile of rubble and twisted metal scattered in the mosque's tiled courtyard.

Syria's state news agency said rebels from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group blew it up, while Aleppo-based activist Mohammed al-Khatib said a Syrian army tank fired a shell that "totally destroyed" the minaret.

Associated Press writers Barbara Surk and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

BEIJING -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met China's top leaders on Saturday in a bid to persuade them to exert pressure on North Korea to scale back its belligerent rhetoric and, eventually, return to nuclear talks.

Traveling to Beijing for the first time as secretary of state, Kerry made no secret of his desire to see China take a more activist stance toward North Korea, which in recent weeks has threatened nuclear war against the United States and South Korea.

As the North's main trading partner, financial backer and the closest thing it has to a diplomatic ally, China has a unique ability to use its leverage against the impoverished, isolated state, Kerry said in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on Friday before leaving for Beijing.

"Mr. President, this is obviously a critical time with some very challenging issues -- issues on the Korean Peninsula, the challenge of Iran and nuclear weapons, Syria and the Middle East, and economies around the world that are in need of a boost," Kerry told Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People.

Kerry said after the meeting that his talks with Xi were "constructive and forward-leaning", though he did not elaborate.

China had a testy relationship with Kerry's predecessor, Hillary Clinton, believing her to be too abrasive in their disagreements over everything from human rights to territorial disputes like the South China Sea.

"Clinton added fuel to the mistrust during her four-year term. We hope Kerry can pull it in the other direction," China's widely read and influential Global Times tabloid said in an editorial.

Kerry's visit to Asia, which will include a stop in Tokyo on Sunday, takes place after weeks of shrill North Korean threats of war since the imposition of new U.N. sanctions in response to its third nuclear test in February.

North Korea has repeatedly said it will not abandon nuclear weapons which it said on Friday were its "treasured" guarantor of security.

No sign of imminent missile launch
North Korean television on Saturday made no mention of Kerry's visit and devoted most of its reports to preparations for Monday's celebrations marking the birth date of state founder Kim Il-Sung.

These included a numerous floral tributes and grandiose flower show, foreign visitors seeing the sights of the capital ahead of the festivities and the unveiling of a monument in a provincial town.

But Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers' Party's newspaper, issued a fresh denunciation of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, saying: "The outbreak of nuclear war has now become a fait accompli, owing to the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces.

"If the enemies dare provoke (North Korea) while going reckless, it will immediately blow them up with an annihilating strike with the use of powerful nuclear means."

However, South Korea's Yonhap news agency, quoting a government source, said North Korea had not moved any of its mobile missile launchers for the past two days after media reports that as many as five missiles had been moved into place on the country's east coast.

Yonhap said there had been no signs of any movement by the mobile launchers since Thursday "or that missile launches are imminent".

U.S. 'fanning the flames'?
Beijing has been reluctant to apply pressure on Pyongyang, fearing the instability that could result if the North were to implode and send floods of refugees into China, and has looked askance at U.S. military drills in South Korea.

China's official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that Washington had itself been "fanning the flames" on the Korean peninsula with its shows of force.

"It keeps sending more fighters, bombers and missile-defense ships to the waters of East Asia and carrying out massive military drills with Asian allies in a dramatic display of preemptive power," it said.

However, U.S. officials believe China's rhetoric on North Korea has begun to shift, pointing to a recent speech by China's Xi in which -- without referring explicitly to Pyongyang -- he said no country "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain".

Kerry told reporters in Seoul that if North Korea's 30-year-old leader went ahead with the launch of a medium-range missile, he would be making "a huge mistake."

At a news conference in Seoul on Friday and in a U.S.-South Korean joint statement issued on Saturday, Kerry signaled the U.S. preference for diplomacy to end the tension, but stressed North Korea must take "meaningful" steps on denuclearization.

The United States and its allies believe the North violated the a 2005 aid-for-denuclearization deal by conducting a nuclear test in 2006 and pursuing a uranium enrichment program that would give it a second path to a nuclear weapon in addition to its plutonium-based program.

Slideshow: Glimpses into the hermit kingdom of North Korea

David Guttenfelder / AP

As chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.

Launch slideshow

Related:

John Kerry in Seoul: North Korea missile launch would be 'huge mistake'

Missile launch is North Korea's exit strategy, experts say

Google+ Hangout featuring NBC News correspondents in Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo

Full North Korea coverage from NBC News

The latest threat of war from North Korea came Tuesday as Pyongyang warned foreigners in South Korea to leave the country because they were at risk in the event of conflict. Soaring tensions in the region have been fueled by North Korean anger over the imposition of U.N. sanctions after its last nuclear arms test in February.

NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel participated in a Google+ Hangout on Tuesday from Seoul. He answered questions on the deteriorating situation in the region, the North’s nuclear test plans and more.   

Click on the video above to replay the informative chat.

See more of Richard's reporting on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams tonight, the Today Show, MSNBC cable and here on NBCNews.com.

Related links:

Full North Korea coverage from NBC News

'Positive thinking' after years of threats keeps South Koreans going

Who is North Korea's secretive leader? Here is what we know

North Korea's overseas apologists dismiss 'propaganda'

Ahn Young-Joon / AP

Crowds of people shop at Myeongdong, a main shopping street in Seoul, amid a tense situation over North Korea's threat of war, on Sunday.

SEOUL, South Korea – As the war drums keep beating on the Korean Peninsula, one would expect to see anxiety on the streets of Seoul, where 10 million people live just 30 miles from 700,000 North Korean soldiers and well within range of thousands of heavily dug-in artillery pieces. 

Instead, people in South Korea's capital have been calmly going about their business. No boarding up of homes or work places. No distribution of emergency drugs or gas masks. Restaurants and hotels are full. The city is bustling.

Don’t these people know that hundreds – or even thousands – could die if the North launches a full-scale attack, as it has threatened to do?

“It’s postive thinking,” explained Kwak Keumjoo, a professor of psychology at the Seoul National University. “If you keep thinking about fear and threats, life wouldn’t be worth it. So people here have a defense mechanism. They tell themselves, ‘OK, it will be all right’, or ‘Somebody will help us,’ or ‘I don’t believe it’s really going to happen.’”

Keumjoo said it’s not as much a state of denial as a numbness, brought about by living under a constant threat, 60 years after the bloody Korean War ended, not with a peace treaty, but with an open-ended cease-fire.

To survive, Seoulites rarely talk about the North. They bury their worry in the deep recesses of their minds and put their faith in their own system.

“South Koreans have the view that justice and democracy will always win out,” said Keumjoo.

‘We’re not worried about the war’
Yoo-Lim, In-Young and Na-Young are all sophomores at Seoul’s Ewha University. During a recent lunch break, none of them was gazing at the horizon, looking for a mushroom cloud.

“We read the papers, listen to the radio, go online,” said Yoo-lim. “And we’re not worried about the war.”

Why is she so calm when the media has reached a fever pitch? “Repetitive learning,” she replied. “The north has done this over and over.”

But what about fire drills? Getting under desks? Bracing under bunkers?

“No, there’s nothing like that,” said Na-Young in between giggles. “We’re just used to North Korean threats from time to time.”

That’s not to say Seoul lives in a fantasy world.

Jim Maceda / NBC News

An entrance to one of Seoul's many underground malls that also functions as a temporary shelter.

Shopping mall bunkers
Beneath its downtown streets, a maze of malls and passageways interconnect into one of the world’s largest underground shelters, big enough, officials say, to protect 2 million citizens from any potentially withering pounding by North Korea’s heavy conventional weapons – but not a nuclear attack.

Ironically, the malls are converted underground bunkers left derelict after the Korean War. Today, many buildings here have basement parking lots that descend six or seven levels, and serve as temporary shelters as well.

On the 15^th of most months, sirens announce the beginning of a 15-minute civil drill, where drivers are supposed to pull their vehicles over to the curb and head for the closest shelter, clearing the streets.

But, with no real alert taking place now for some 60 years, Seoulites have understandably become complacent. Drivers stay in their vehicles; pedestrians stop and keep chatting.

“If there was an attack I wouldn’t know where to go,” Julie Yoo, a freelance journalist, admitted.  

“The Korean men call their reserve units, government officials and bureaucrats have their specially designated shelters, but Korean women, like myself, have no option but to stay at home and watch TV for guidance.”

In fact, if there ever was a nuclear attack here, Seoul has only one bunker where you might survive that kind of attack – under the Presidential Palace.

Jim Maceda / NBC News

One of Seoul's many underground malls which also functions as a temporary shelter.

“But I’m not worried,” said Yoo. “It’ll never happen!”

‘We have to study!’
In towns along the border, news reports speak of some preparations, like pamphlets distributed to locals, advising them of what signs to look for – sudden thick clouds or large numbers of birds or fish mysteriously dying.

But only 30 miles away, In-Young has anything but war signals on her mind.

“No one is saying ‘Oh there’s gonna be a war, we’re all gonna die!,’” she blurted out. “No, all our friends care about are exams coming up in two weeks – we have to study!”

Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London, currently on assignment in Seoul, South Korea.

Related links:

Google + Hangout with Richard Engel on North Korea tensions

North Korea warns foreigners to leave South

Full North Korea coverage from NBC News

Who is North Korea's secretive leader? Here is what we know

North Korea's overseas apologists dismiss 'propaganda'

North Korea said on Saturday that it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea, following a call to arms by the country's young leader Kim Jong Un and days of increasingly belligerent rhetoric from the isolated state.

The North's official news agency KCNA published the joint statement issued by the government, political parties and other organizations.

"From this time on, the North-South relations will be entering a state of war and all issues raised between the North and the South will be handled accordingly," it said. 

The statement also warned that if the U.S. and South Korea carried out a pre-emptive attack, the conflict "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war."

Analysts have said the North's threats have followed a similar pattern but that the country's 30-year-old leader is unpredictable and potentially dangerous.

The White House responded on Saturday by reiterating that "North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. However, she said the U.S. "takes these threats seriously".

"We continue to take additional measures against the North Korean threat, including our plan to increase the U.S. ground-based interceptors and early warning and tracking radar, and the signing of the ROK-U.S. counter-provocation plan," she said.

Slideshow: Glimpses into the hermit kingdom of North Korea

David Guttenfelder / AP

As chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.

Launch slideshow

On Thursday the U.S. sent two nuclear-capable bombers to South Korea, where they dropped inert munitions in a military exercise. The flight sparked an angry response from the North, which declared on Friday that it was preparing rockets aimed at American bases in South Korea and the Pacific.

A South Korean defense ministry official said there were no early signs that the North was mobilizing, Reuters reported.

The two nations have technically been at war since a truce ended their 1950-53 conflict, but tensions have been increasing since the North carried out its third nuclear weapons test in February.

NBC News' Kristen Welker and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

Analysis: North Korea's threats predictable but Kim Jong Un is not

North Korea's Internet? For most, online access doesn't exist

PhotoBlog: Pyongyang marchers: 'Rip the puppet traitors to death!'

KCNA via Reuters

North Korean soldiers attend military drills that the country's state-controlled KCNA news agency said took place on Wednesday. Kim Jong Un reportedly said that "when the drills turn into a battle, the enemies will be made to drink a bitter cup."

Kim Jong Un said on Wednesday that North Korea would attack U.S. military bases in the Pacific in addition to South Korea if its “enemies … make even the slightest movement,” according to the North’s official KCNA news agency.

The North also hit out over deployment of a U.S. B-52 bomber to South Korea, warning of “all-out action” - the latest of a series of threats issued by Pyongyang.

KCNA news agency said, in its usual flowery rhetoric, that the presence of the bomber showed the U.S. was preparing for "a pre-emptive nuclear strike," echoing its own earlier threat to do that.

Tensions have risen sharply on the Korean peninsula following a rocket test by the North in December and a nuclear bomb test in February.  In response, the U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed early this month to impose further sanctions.

The threat to attack American bases in the Pacific came in a KCNA article headlined “Kim Jong Un Guides Drone Attack, Self-Propelled Flak Rocket Drills,” which trumpeted the success of a drill that was said to have destroyed an “enemy” cruise missile.

“When the drills turn into a battle, the enemies will be made to drink a bitter cup, unable to raise their heads, in the face of retaliatory blows of the strong revolutionary Paektusan army, he [Kim] said,” KCNA reported.

“He [Kim] said that if the enemies, oblivious of the tremendous might of the KPA, make even the slightest movement, he will give an order to destroy not only the military installments and puppet reactionary ruling institutions in the operational theater in south Korea but the relevant facilities of countries following the U.S. war moves for invading the DPRK, and the military bases of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces in the operational theatre of the Pacific,” it said.

“He continued that time has gone when only words were made, stressing the need to destroy the enemies without mercy so that not a single man can survive to sign a document of surrender when a battle starts,” it added.

Slideshow: North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un

The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.

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U.S. 'better stop acting rashly'
Another KCNA article said Wednesday that the U.S. had become “evermore undisguised in its moves to make a pre-emptive nuclear strike” on North Korea and that this “goes to clearly show who is the arch criminal threatening peace on this land.”

“The U.S. imperialists had better stop acting rashly, properly understanding the will of the army and people that have turned out as one in an all-out action for a final victory,” it said.

North Korea routinely issues threats that sound alarming, but expert commentators have said the recent rhetoric has been stronger than in the past. North Korea has even said it has scrapped the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Reuters summarized current thinking about the threat posed by the North:

North Korea's missiles have the capacity to hit bases in Japan and on the island of Guam.

Most military experts say that the North will likely not launch an all-out war against South Korea and its U.S. ally due to its outdated weaponry.

Pyongyang is viewed as more likely to stage an attack along a disputed sea border between the two countries as it did in 2010 when it shelled a South Korean island, killing four people.

Such a move would provide a major test for new South Korean President Park Geun-hye who took office pledging closer ties with the North if it abandoned its nuclear push.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

South Korea on alert after hackers strike banks, broadcasters

US Capitol in flames? North Korea dreams of nuclear strike

UN passes sanctions despite North Korea threat of 'pre-emptive nuclear attack'

Jessica Lynch. Tommy Franks.  'Chemical Ali.' Tony Blair. Hans Blix. Ten years ago, as the war in Iraq began, these were names on front pages everywhere. Find out what has happened to them – and 10 other headliners associated with the conflict – since.

Lynndie England (Abu Ghraib)

Exclusive to the Washington Post

A naked detainee at the Abu Ghraib prison is tethered by a leash to prison guard Army Pvt. Lynndie England in this undated photo.

THEN
If fellow West Virginian Jessica Lynch became the personification of American valor in Iraq, another private first class, Lynndie England, came to symbolize the ugly side of the United States when photos of her and other soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison surfaced in April 2004. 

England, along with other members of the Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company, had been stationed at Abu Ghraib, a large jail outside Baghdad that had been used by the Saddam Hussein regime, since mid-2003. 

Top military officials first became aware of the Abu Ghraib abuses in January 2004. The scandal after the pictures became public tarnished the military’s image worldwide and particularly in the Arab world.

On September 26, 2005, England was convicted of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count. England was sentenced to three years for her crimes and given a dishonorable discharge. The next day, when she was sentenced, she apologized for appearing in the pictures, though not for the maltreatment and assault committed on the prisoners. 

Seven other members of her company were charged with similar offences, including her then-boyfriend, Sgt, Charles Graner, who was sentenced to ten years for his role in the abuse. She gave birth to a son, Carter Allan England, in October 2004 at Womack Army Medical Center on Fort Bragg. News accounts described Graner as both the father of the child and England’s “ex-boyfriend.”

Vicki Smith/AP file

Lynndie England, former Army reservist and the face of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, is pictured in Keyser, W.Va. on June 17, 2009.

NOW
To serve her sentence, England was sent to the Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar, located near San Diego, Calif. The brig is the Department of Defense’s only prison designated for women, Brewster Schenck, a spokesman for the facility, told the San Diego Union. 

In December 2005, according to wire service reports, her family complained in that she was burned and given inadequate medical treatment. 

England worked in the kitchen of the prison, from which she was paroled on March 1, 2007, after having served 521 days, according to a Reuters report.  She remained on parole through September 2008, when her three-year sentence was complete and she received a dishonorable discharge. 

In July 2007, The Associated Press reported that England had found a new role – as a member of the Keyser, W.Va., volunteer recreation board. England contributed her knowledge of computers, electronics and graphics for Keyser’s Strawberry Festival, which helped her land the unpaid position, Roy Hardy, the England family’s attorney, told the AP. 

“When [council members] saw how hard she worked for the festival, they didn’t hesitate to put her on the board,” said Hardy, who is also a board member. “If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have been able to pull off [the Strawberry Festival]. She was an absolute asset.” 

Hard worker or not, England has found it difficult to find a paying job. According to January, 2009, interview in London’s Guardian newspaper, many jobs are closed to her because of her felony conviction while others suddenly close after people find about her background.

The only employment England can muster, The Daily website reported in March 2012, is seasonal secretarial work for an accountant who has known her since she was a teen.

Most of her time is spent at her parents’ home in Fort Ashby, W.Va., where she lives with her son by Graner. Her former boyfriend is not in the child’s life, despite a 2009 paternity test proving he is the father. “Graner didn’t want anything to do with the baby,” England told The Daily.

In her interview with the Daily, Lynndie expressed no remorse for her actions. “Their (Iraqis’) lives are better. They got the better end of the deal,” she said. “They weren’t innocent. They’re trying to kill us, and you want me to apologize to them? It’s like saying sorry to the enemy.”

England became a focal point of the scandal in part because she was a woman and partly because she was pictured in many of the more graphic photos, including one that showed her smiling and posing with nude prisoners stacked in a pyramid. In another picture, she is smiling and pointing at a naked detainee’s genitals while a cigarette dangles from the corner of her mouth. 

IRAQ TEN YEARS LATER: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

• Jessica Lynch
• Hans Blix (UN arms inspector)
• Colin Powell
• Tariq Aziz (Saddam Hussein’s foreign minister)
• Ahmed Chalabi (Iraqi exile leader)
• Tony Blair
• Gen. Tommy Franks
• Josh Rushing (Marines spokesman)
• Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks (Army spokesman)
• Paul Bremer (Iraq administrator)
• Farris Hassan (teen journalist)
• Lynndie England (Abu Ghraib)
• Mohammed Al-Rehaief (aided Jessica Lynch)
• Ali Hassan Al-Majid  (‘Chemical Ali’)
• Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf (‘Baghdad Bob’)