He made the warning after a
meeting between South Korea and the United States was held last week in
Washington, where they discussed nuclear deterrence in the event of conflict
with the North.
The meeting's agenda included
'nuclear and strategic planning', and the allies reiterated that any nuclear
attack by Pyongyang on the United States or South Korea would result at the end
of the North Korean regime.
But Kim reportedly told his
military's missile bureau 'not to hesitate (launching) even a nuclear attack
when the enemy provokes it with nukes,' Pyongyang's official Korean Central
News Agency said Thursday.
Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo
released a statement shortly afterwards, urging the nuclear-armed country to
'stop conducting further provocations and accept our call for engaging in
substantive dialogue without preconditions'.
The three countries have ramped
up defence cooperation in the face of a record-breaking series of weapons tests
by Pyongyang this year, and on Tuesday activated a system to share real-time
data on North Korean missile launches.
On Monday, the North launched
its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-18, later
describing it as 'a warning counter-measure' against what it described as
persistent acts of 'military threat' by Washington and its allies.
It came after a US
nuclear-powered submarine arrived in the South Korean port city of Busan last
week, and on Wednesday, Washington flew its long-range bombers in drills with
Seoul and Tokyo.
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