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Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

South Korean Army soldiers sit on their K-9 self-propelled artillery vehicle during an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, Monday, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

North Korea's young leader urged front-line troops to be on "maximum alert" for a potential war as a state-run newspaper said Pyongyang had carried out a threat to cancel the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.

Kim Jong Un told artillery troops stationed near disputed waters that have seen several bloody clashes in past years that "war can break out right now," according to a report by North Korean state media.

Kim's visit and the armistice claim are part of a torrent of angry North Korean rhetoric that has followed last week's U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test. Pyongyang has also vowed to strike the United States with nuclear weapons.

It is unclear, however, what will come next and whether North Korea will match its words with action. South Korea's Defence Ministry said Tuesday there were no signs that North Korea would attack or conduct more nuclear or missile tests anytime soon and that Pyongyang was merely trying to apply "psychological pressure" on the South.

A U.N. spokesman said that Pyongyang cannot unilaterally dissolve the armistice, which is still valid. Pyongyang is also years away from acquiring the smaller, lighter nuclear warheads needed to pose a credible nuclear missile threat to the United States.

Analysts have also said that more missile and nuclear tests are possible reactions from North Korea.