Kim Jong-un has warned Israel that North Korea will obliterate them if they continue to destabilize the Middle East.

Jong-un accused Israel of being the only Middle East nation to illegally possess nuclear weapons with the blessing of the United States.

The comments come after Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman accused Jong-un of being a “madman” and part of an “insane and radical” gang alongside Iran and Syria.

“The reckless remarks of the Israeli defense minister are sordid and wicked behavior and grave challenge to the DPRK [North Korea],” state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday

Jpost.com reports:

“This is the cynical ploy to escape the world denunciation and curse as disturber of peace in the Middle East, occupier of the Arab territories and culprit of crimes against humanity,” the spokesman said.

The access to nuclear power is a “righteous right for self-defense to cope with the US provocative moves for aggression,” the statement read.

The statement threatened Israel and anyone who “dares hurt the dignity of its supreme leadership,” with “merciless, thousand-fold punishment.”

The statement ended with a warning to Israel to “think twice about the consequences to be entailed by its smear campaign against the DPRK [North Korea] to cover up the crimes of occupying Arab territories and disturbing peace process in the Middle East.”

Last Tuesday a senior IDF officer told reporters at a special briefing that ongoing tension between North Korea and the US could impact Israel’s security.

The officer referred to the developing diplomatic rift between the US and the peninsula following North Korea’s recent and defiant attempts to extend its nuclear activity, despite repeated warnings from the West.

He explained that Israel could bear the brunt of such an escalation in the relations between Washington and Pyongyang should it occur, because the US would have to divert security resources from the Middle East to Korea.