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North Korean leader Kim reiterates Pyongyang does not seek war but will not shrink from it

"The war will terribly destroy the entity called the Republic of Korea and put an end to its existence," Kim Jong Un said

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service telegram channel via AP

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un

© Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service telegram channel via AP

SEOUL, January 16. /TASS/. North Korea has no wish to initiate a war, but at the same time it has no intention of backing away from one either, leader Kim Jong Un reassured the country’s Supreme People’s Assembly at a meeting on Tuesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"There is no reason [for us] to opt for war, and therefore, there is no intention of unilaterally going to war, but once a war becomes a reality facing us, we will never try to avoid it," he said. While on an inspection of a defense sector enterprise earlier, Kim said his country is not set to "unilaterally" trigger "major events with [its] dominant force" on the Korean Peninsula but that it has no intention of avoiding a war either.

"The war will terribly destroy the entity called the Republic of Korea and put an end to its existence. And it will inflict an unimaginably crushing defeat upon the US. Our military capabilities, already in readiness to do so, are being rapidly updated," the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) went on to say. In the event of a war on the peninsula, the DPRK will "resolutely punish the enemies by mobilizing all its military forces, including nuclear weapons," he warned.

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