A high-ranking North Korean diplomat told a non-proliferation conference in Moscow on Friday that the country’s nuclear weapons were aimed at the US and at no one else.
“We believe that the US, but not any other country, may mount a nuclear attack,” Choe Hui, the Head of the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s Department on North American Affairs, said.
“Our nuclear programme and weapons are aimed at the US,” the diplomat said in comments carried by Russian state news agency, TASS.
He said: “Our nuclear response will aim at the US, but not any other third country.”
Russia and China have the closest diplomatic relations with the insular communist state of North Korea.
The US and its allies South Korea and Japan have been increasingly alarmed in recent months about the potential for a nuclear war with North Korea.