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North Korea: Nuclear button 'on my desk', says Kim Jong-un as he claims Pyongyang can hit all of US North Korea: Kim Jong-un signals 'path to dialogue open' with South as he warns US of 'nuclear button'
(35 minutes later)
The US will never be able to start a war against North Korea now that his country has developed the capability to hit all of the US mainland with its nuclear weapons, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has claimed.The US will never be able to start a war against North Korea now that his country has developed the capability to hit all of the US mainland with its nuclear weapons, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has claimed.
"The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat," Mr Kim said during a televised New Year's Day speech. “The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat,” Mr Kim said during a televised New Year’s Day speech.
But in a rare move the dictator tempered his bellicose rhetoric with the suggestion he may send a North Korean delegation to the Winter Olympics when they are held in South Korea. During the address Mr Kim made overtures to South Korea, saying the path to dialogue was open and adding it was imperative to lower military tensions on the peninsula.
It is possible officials from the two countries may meet in the near future to discuss the idea, he said, adding that he hoped the event was successful. The dictator tempered his rhetoric on deterrence with the suggestion he may send a North Korean delegation to the Winter Olympics when they are held in February.
Pyongyang and Seoul should improve their relations and the path to dialogue is open, Mr Kim was reported as saying. It is possible officials from the two Koreas may meet in the near future to discuss the idea, Mr Kim said, adding that he hoped the event was successful.
Pyongyang and Seoul should improve their relations, he was reported as saying.
The North will only use nuclear weapons if its security is threatened, he added.The North will only use nuclear weapons if its security is threatened, he added.
More follows… Mr Kim’s claim that North Korea has “completed” its nuclear force may mean he considers the deterrent effective enough to allow first attempts at dialogue with the outside world, experts have previously told The Independent.
  Professor Lee Geun, of Seoul National University, said the declaration in December was the “most important” development of 2017 for Pyongyang.
Mr Kim would now end “overt missile and nuclear tests” while beginning “hard bargaining for nuclear status and a peace treaty with the US,” he predicted.
And John Nilsson-Wright, a senior lecturer at Cambridge University, said a nuclear deterrent gave Mr Kim “something he can trade”.