North Korean Deputy Vice Minister Pak Kil Yon warned the United Nations General Assembly

Addressing the final session of the U.N. General Assembly's annual high-level meeting today, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil Yon said the increasingly precarious inter-Korean relations have resulted in the area becoming "the world's most dangerous hotspot". The speech was the first time a representative of North Korea has addressed the General Assembly since Kim Jong-un assumed power after the death of his father in December last year. Much of the speech, in which Pak pledged to use the North's "mighty" military deterrent against any "reckless provocations", focused on North Korea's continuing state of war with the US more than 60 years after the Korean War ended with an armistice, but no peace treaty. "The only way to prevent war and ensure lasting peace on the Korean peninsula is to put an end to the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK," he said, using the initials of the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The DPRK's patience does not mean it is unlimited North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil Yon

In an apparent reference to North Korea's nuclear arsenal and massive military, Pak said his nation's "patience and self-defensive war deterrent," have prevented U.S. military provocations "from turning into an all-out war on the Korean peninsula." "However, the DPRK's patience does not mean it is unlimited," he warned. Pak argued that Washington's intention has been "to destroy the ideas and system chosen by our people and to occupy the whole of the Korean peninsula and to use it as a stepping-stone for realizing its strategy of dominating the whole of Asia." "Today, due to the continued U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK," Pak said, "the vicious cycle of confrontation and aggravation of tension is an ongoing phenomenon on the Korean peninsula, which has become the world's most dangerous hotspot where a spark of fire could set off a thermonuclear war."

Since 2003, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and South Korea have been trying to negotiate a disarmament deal with North Korea that would halt its nuclear program, but the North moved ahead, conducting a nuclear test in 2006 which led to U.N. sanctions. The North walked away from the talks in 2009 and later that year exploded its second nuclear device. So far, efforts to re-start the six-party talks have failed. Pak said the United States has finalised scenarios for a new Korean War and "is waiting for a chance to implement them" and impose military rule after an invasion. The latest military drill in August involving more than 80,000 troops from the U.S., South Korea and seven countries that fought with them in the Korean War "drove the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of war," Pak said.