North Korea Youtube video shows US city resembling New York under missile attack

North Korea has posted a video on YouTube depicting a US city resembling New York, engulfed in flames after an apparent missile attack.

The video was uploaded by the North's official website, Uriminzokkiri, which distributes news and propaganda from the state media, reports the Herald Sun.

The video is shot as a dream sequence, with a young man seeing himself on board a North Korean space shuttle launched into orbit by the same type of rocket Pyongyang successfully tested in December.

As the shuttle circles the globe - to the tune of We Are the World - the video zooms in on countries below, including a re-unified Korea. The focus then switches to a city, covered in the US flag, with its skyscrapers either on fire or in ruins.

A caption in the video reads: "Somewhere in the United States, black clouds of smoke are billowing. It seems that the nest of wickedness is ablaze. Despite all kinds of attempts by imperialists to isolate and crush us ... never will anyone be able to stop the people marching toward a final victory.

The video ends with the young man concluding that his dream will "surely come true"

North Korea is expected to conduct a nuclear test as a defiant response to UN sanctions imposed after a rocket launch in December.