Kim Jong-un: North Korea Must be Ready to Launch Nuclear Strike at Any Time

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called on his country to always be ready to launch a nuclear attack. The threat of this must prevent a war.

According to the North Korean state medium KCNA, he also accuses the United States and South Korea of expanding their joint military exercises with American nuclear assets.

The North Korean leader holds the US and South Korea responsible for the rising tensions in the region. The two countries began their 11-day joint military exercise Freedom Shield last Monday.

Kim Jong-un is said to have made his statements when his army conducted military exercises on Saturday and Sunday. According to KCNA, these were supposed to act as a deterrent and to strengthen the “nuclear counter-attack capability”. According to the news agency, a ballistic missile with a dummy warhead was fired to hit a target 800 kilometres away during the exercises.

North Korea also claimed on Saturday that about 800,000 citizens would volunteer to join the military to fight the US.