The President of the US Southern Baptist Convention has claimed same-sex marriage is the cause of recent North Korean threats to the United States.

Fred Luter told a US radio station that there is a link between the North Korean threats to launch a nuclear strike against the US and the Supreme Court’s recent hearings on the issue of same-sex marriage.

Warning listeners that he “not that strong in prophecy”, Mr Luter went on to make a prophecy, of a divine connection between the war mongering of Kim Jong Un’s government and both the Supreme Court and the debate over gays in the Boy Scouts.

“At the time when we are debating same-sex marriage, at a time when we are debating whether or not we should have gays leading the Boy Scout movement,” Mr Luter said: “I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a mad man in Asia who is saying some of the things that he’s saying”

He added: “The last time a nation did that [allowed same-sex marriage] they were destroyed, Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. I just see things getting consistently worse in America because of our decisions that we’ve made to just get farther and farther away from God and God’s word.”

The radio programme’s host, Rick Wiles earlier said that the US is being “transformed into a socialist, homosexual, anti-God, anti-biblical morality cesspool” and will commit “national suicide” if the Supreme Court rules in favour of same-sex marriage. He also called on Christians to stop paying taxes ” until this craziness stops.”

Yesterday, Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the US National Security Council dismissed North Korea’s recent aggressive statements. She said: “We would also note that North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats, and today’s announcement follows that familiar pattern.”

North Korea says that it does not discriminate against LGBT people although it rejects parts of ‘gay culture’. An official document released by the government sponsored Korean Friendship Association says : “DPRK (The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) recognises that many individuals are born with homosexuality as a genetic trait and treats them with due respect. Homosexuals in the DPRK have never been subject to repression, as in many capitalist regimes around the world. However, North Koreans also place a lot of emphasis on social harmony and morals. Therefore, the DPRK rejects many characteristics of the popular gay culture in the West, which many perceive to embrace consumerism, classism and promiscuity.”