North Korea: North Korea’s State media has reported that North Korean leader Mr. Kim Jong Un has warned Pyongyang that it will not hesitate to launch a nuclear attack if “provoked with nukes,” while Seoul and its allies called for “dialogue without preconditions.”
Mr. Kim’s warning comes after a meeting last week in Washington, D.C., between South Korea and the US, where the two countries talked about nuclear deterrence in the event of conflict with the North.
“Nuclear and strategic planning” was on the agenda for the meeting, and the allies reaffirmed that Pyongyang’s use of nuclear weapons against the US or South Korea would bring about the collapse of the North Korean regime.
However, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday that Mr. Kim instructed his military’s missile bureau “not to hesitate even a nuclear attack when the enemy provokes it with nukes.”
Shortly afterward, a joint statement from Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo called on the nuclear-armed nation to “stop conducting further provocations and accept our call for engaging in substantive dialogue without preconditions.”
In response to Pyongyang’s unprecedented string of weapon tests this year, the three nations have increased their defense cooperation. They turned on a system that allows them to exchange real-time information about North Korean missile launches.
The North launched the Hwasong-18, its most potent intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this week. It later described the missile launch as “a warning counter-measure” against what it saw as ongoing “military threat” actions by Washington and its allies.
A US nuclear-powered submarine docked in Busan, South Korea, last week, and Washington conducted long-range bomber exercises with Seoul and Tokyo on Wednesday.
POPULAR | Kim Jong Un wishes Putin ‘victory over imperialists’; Report
