North Korean leader Kim Jong Un salutes at a parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)
Seoul - North Korea is absolutely ready to mobilize its “nuclear war deterrence forces” at any moment, the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, said.
“Now our armed forces are fully prepared to respond to any crisis, and our country's nuclear deterrent forces are also fully ready to correctly, accurately and quickly mobilize its absolute power to fulfill its mission,” Kim said on Wednesday at the celebration of the anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
He stressed that any possible attempt of South Korea to make a preventive strike on North Korea to neutralize a part of the latter's military potential would be futile.
In 1953, both South and North Korea reached an Armistice Agreement that ended the three-year war. However, formally, the Korean Peninsula is still at war because it ended without a peace treaty.
Meanwhile, Japan considers the development of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs a threat to peace, regional and global security, and intends to continue close cooperation with other countries for complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki told reporters.
“The development of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs threatens the peace and security of Japan and the international community and is absolutely unacceptable.
“The government intends to continue collecting and analyzing the necessary information,” Isozaki said.
“We will also take all measures to monitor the situation and cooperate with the United States and South Korea in order to completely denuclearize North Korea,” he said.
Sputnik