TOP North Korean diplomat Han Song Ryol warned Washington yesterday that it had “crossed a red line” and effectively declared war by putting leader Kim Jong Un on its list of sanctioned individuals.

Mr Han warned that a vicious showdown could erupt if the US and South Korea hold annual war games as planned next month.

The director-general of the US affairs department at the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang said that recent US actions have put the situation on the Korean peninsula on a war footing.