North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has accused the US and South Korea of bringing the Korean peninsula to the “brink of war”, as Seoul and Washington prepare for their first large-scale joint military exercises in four years.
In remarks reported on Thursday from an event on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the end of the Korean war in 1953, Kim threatened to “wipe out” South Korean forces with nuclear weapons in the event of a confrontation.
“Our armed forces are completely prepared to respond to any crisis, and our country’s nuclear war deterrent is also ready to mobilise its absolute power dutifully, exactly and swiftly in accordance with its mission,” North Korean state media reported Kim as saying.