north korea leader Kim Jong Un South Korea defended its country’s nuclear arsenal, saying the ongoing war with Iran demonstrated the need for strong military deterrence, state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.Speaking at North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly on Tuesday, Kim Jong Un accused the United States of “terrorism and invasion” in multiple regions and mentioned Washington’s conflict with Iran, but he did not mention U.S. President Donald Trump directly.“A country’s dignity, interests and final victory can only be guaranteed by the most powerful force,” Kim Jong Un said, according to KCNA. “Whether the enemy chooses confrontation or peaceful coexistence, that is their choice, and we are ready to respond to any choice.”He vowed to further advance North Korea’s “defensive nuclear deterrence” and maintain a “rapid and precise” response posture of its nuclear forces to deal with “strategic threats” to national and regional security.Kim added that North Korea “will continue to consolidate its status as a nuclear-weapon state… while actively carrying out operations to crush any provocation by hostile forces”.Kim Jong-un also escalated his rhetoric against South Korea, officially declaring South Korea the “most hostile country.”North Korea “officially” recognizes South Korea as the most hostile country and will completely ignore and disregard South Korea through the clearest words and actions,” Kim Jong Un warned, warning of “ruthless” consequences if Seoul provokes Pyongyang.Meanwhile, US President Trump confirmed that talks with Iran were ongoing and claimed that the war was nearing an end.“We’re negotiating now. I can tell you, they want to make a deal, and who wouldn’t if you were here? Look, their navy is gone, their air force is gone, their communications are gone. Almost everything they owned was gone. I think we’ll end it. I can’t tell you for sure. We won… We did have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country. There’s nothing they can do about it. If I wanted to tear down that power plant, for example, they couldn’t do anything about it...They were completely defeated…Militarily speaking, they were dead,” he said.However, Iran has denied reports of talks and insists peace will come only if the United States and Israel end military operations. As Iran launches its 80th wave of retaliatory strikes, the situation in the Middle East remains volatile.
