North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has warned that Pyongyang will not hesitate to launch a nuclear attack if "provoked with nuclear weapons", state media reported.
Kim's comments came after a meeting between South Korea and the US last week in Washington, where they discussed nuclear deterrence in the event of a conflict with the North. The meeting's agenda included "nuclear and strategic planning" and the allies reiterated that any nuclear attack by Pyongyang against the US and South Korea would lead to the end of the North Korean regime.
But Kim told his military missile bureau "not to hesitate even (undertaking) a nuclear attack when the enemy provokes it with nuclear weapons," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo issued a statement shortly after, calling on the nuclear-armed country to "cease further provocations and accept our call to engage in substantive dialogue without preconditions." The three countries have stepped up defense cooperation in the face of a record series of missile tests by Pyongyang this year, and on Tuesday activated a system to share real-time data on North Korean missile launches.
On Monday, the North fired its most powerful ballistic missile, the Hwasong-18, later describing it as a "precautionary countermeasure" against what it described as persistent "military threat" actions by Washington and its allies. Last week, a US nuclear submarine arrived in the South Korean port city of Busan, and on Wednesday Washington sent its long-range bombers to exercises with Seoul and Tokyo. The North recently emphasized that "the Korean Peninsula is in a state of war by law" and "strategic assets" deployed by Washington in the South "are the first targets of destruction." /BGNES
