North Korean Defense Minister on Nuclear War: Question is Who Will Start It

KUBINKA, Russia (Sputnik) - The possibility of a start of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula is not the question, as the question is who will start it and when, North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam said on Tuesday.

"Nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula is no longer a question of whether it will be, but a question of who will start it and when. The nuclear war mania by the United States and their puppets in the Republic of Korea [South Korea] is turning the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia into a new hotbed of nuclear war," the minister said during the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security.

The current political and military situation demonstrates that solving the issue on the Korean peninsula via a dialogue "is an empty phrase" due to actions of the US, Kang Sun Nam added.

"We are firmly convinced that the solution of any issues through dialogue and negotiations is impossible if the United States does not recognize the complete failure of its hostile policy towards the DPRK and does not completely and irrevocably abandon its confrontational line forever," the minister said.

Speaking about plans to further develop security cooperation with Moscow, Hyun noted that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stressed during his meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in late July that Pyongyang intends "to further develop strategic and tactical cooperation, interaction between the two countries in the fields of defense and security."

Kim and Shoigu have discussed in Pyongyang the development of tactical and strategic defense cooperation between the countries during a meeting on July 28.