Nuclear War with US could break out 'at any moment', warns North Korea

AP - North Korea's deputy UN ambassador warned that the situation on the Korean peninsula "has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment". Kim In Ryong was addressing the UN General Assembly's disarmament committee, on Monday.

Mr. Kim, in his address, said that North Korea is the only country in the world that has been subjected to "such an extreme and direct nuclear threat" from the US since the 1970's. Thus, the country has every right to possess nuclear weapons in self-defense.

He pointed to large-scale military using "nuclear assets" being conducted every year and said that the true danger is US plan to stage a "secret operation aimed at the removal of our supreme leadership".

The Deputy UN ambassador said that North Korea has completed its "state nuclear force this year and thus became the full-fledged nuclear power, which possesses the delivery means of various ranges, including the atomic bomb, H-bomb, and intercontinental ballistic rockets".

"The entire US mainland is within our firing range and if the US dares to invade our sacred territory even an inch it will not escape our severe punishment in any part of the globe", Mr. Kim.

Kim's speech follows the increasing threats between North Korea and the Unites States, and increasingly strict UN sanctions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country is shrinking economic, scientific and other ties with North Korea in line with UN sanctions, on Monday. The European Union, too, announced new restrictions on Pyongyang for developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on Sunday, said that the diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the North Korean crisis "will continue until the first bomb drops". However, according to Tweets by President Donald Trump, his Secretary of State is "wasting his time" trying to negotiate with North Korea.