TENS of thousands of North Koreans marched in anti-United States rallies over the weekend, pledging “merciless” revenge against “US imperialists,” North Korean media said today.

This came as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of the start of the Korean war.

More than 120,000 people participated in Sunday’s mass rallies in the nation’s capital, the Korean Central News Agency said, with photos published by the North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper showing crowds holding signs that read: “Let’s eradicate US imperialist invaders.”

Demonstrators in Pyongyang accused the US of provoking the Korean war and leaving Koreans with “wounds … that can never be healed.”

The Korean war began on June 25 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea as they attempted to reunify the Korean Peninsula. 

The invasion led to a bloody three-year war that set northern troops against US-led United Nations forces.

Around two million people are estimated to have been killed in the fighting.

The rallies came amid heightened tensions in the region, as the pace of North Korean weapons demonstrations and the joint military exercises between the US and South Korea have both intensified in a cycle of tit for tat.

Recent commercial satellite images have shown troop and vehicle movements and the building of structures suggestive of preparations for a parade, likely for the July 27 anniversary of the Korean war armistice agreement.

Lee Sung Joon, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing that the South’s military was closely analysing the North’s presumed parade preparations but did not provide specific details.