International Business Times UK:
North Korean officials have claimed the secretive regime has the capability of launching a nuclear missile at “anytime”, a development that if confirmed could have worrying implication for global security.
It has been widely known that the Hermit Kingdom is able to build nuclear weapons, but it is unclear whether it also possesses the technology to miniaturise warheads and mount them on ballistic missiles.
Now, Pyongyang’s envoy to London has claimed it does. Ambassador Hyun Hak-bong told Sky News the North Korean army is “ready for nuclear war”.
“We are prepared,” he said. “That is why I say if a sparkle of a fire is made on the Korean peninsula, it will lead to a nuclear war.”
Asked if North Korea has the ability to fire a nuclear missile, Hyun replied: “Anytime, anytime, yes.”
“If the United States strikes us we should strike back,” he added.
The claim came as the US and South Korea are staging annual joint drills that regularly anger Pyongyang.
The “Key Resolve/Foal Eagle” exercises, the world’s largest joint military drill, begun earlier this month and are due to continue until 24 April, involving thousands of troops.
The drills were welcomed with a heated editorial by North Korea’s ruling party mouthpiece newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, which called the exercises an example of Washington’s “vicious hostile policy”.
“Nuclear war is not a game. If the US thinks it can survive and win a nuclear war, it will be a delusion of an idiot,” the paper wrote…
