The Telegraph:
North Korea’s leader has launched an unprecedented verbal assault on his counterpart in Seoul, threatening to bring about the “end” of South Korea’s president.
The official media in Pyongyang routinely denounces President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, but this is the first time that Kim Jong-un himself has directly insulted his opposite number.
Mr Kim’s remarks came after he ordered North Korea’s armed forces to be ready to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike at “any time”.
Later, the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted his personal condemnation of President Park. “In order to prevent future leaders from silly behaviour like Park’s, it is necessary to clearly show the end of Park,” said Mr Kim.
He added that “Park should be considerate and behave reasonably, ceasing her rash behaviour toward our nuclear armament,” according to a translation published by NK News, a South Korean agency.
Mr Kim said: “If Park carries out trivial military behaviour, then there won’t be any time to regret.”
South Korea faces the dilemma of whether to retaliate for the belligerence of its neighbour. In general, governments in Seoul have avoided responding to the provocations of Pyongyang, which have become more frequent since Mr Kim inherited the leadership of North Korea from his father in 2011.
But President Park, who won office in 2013, has been critical of this approach. She has promised to retaliate for any military attacks launched by the North on South Korean territory.
Mr Kim’s remarks – and his earlier threat to use nuclear weapons – appear designed to deter Ms Park from any such steps.
The North’s official media have previously levelled highly chauvinistic insults at Ms Park, labelling her a “devil, not a woman” and describing her as a “bat living in a cave”.
North Korea has conducted four nuclear tests, most recently on Jan 6. Mr Kim possesses between 10 and 16 nuclear weapons, according to an assessment published by the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in the US.
Of these weapons, about half are nuclear warheads that could be loaded on to a missile. This means that Mr Kim has the ability to launch a nuclear strike on South Korea or any other regional neighbour as far away as Japan.
Mr Kim’s regime has tested an intercontinental ballistic missile which could strike targets as distant as the mainland United States. Whether this latter capability is genuinely operational is open to question.
