Kim Jong-un has issued a terrifying warning to Seoul as Pyongyang threatened to annihilate South Korea.
North Korea’s Supreme Leader ramped up the belligerent rhetoric ahead of this year’s set of undemocratic elections.
He made the remarks during a visit to munitions factories, warning South Korea is the “most hostile” state towards North Korea.
Kim claimed Seoul adopted long-running confrontational moves to topple the North's social system.
Kim Jong-un has ramped up the belligerent rhetoric
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The 40-year-old also suggested Pyongyang will bolster its nuclear deterrent.
Korean Central News Agency revealed Kim vowed to annihilate South Korea by mobilising all means and forces available to it if necessary.
The North Korean leader reportedly believes he can win concessions from South Korean liberals and Donald Trump.
Kim met with the former US President three times as part of high-stakes nuclear diplomacy in 2018 and 2019.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reportedly believes he can win concessions from South Korean liberals and Donald Trump
REUTERSHowever, some experts have warned Pyongyang could provoke accidental and limited clashes with Seoul along the heavily armed Korean border.
North Korea fired artillery shells near the disputed western sea boundary with South Korea last Friday.
South Korea responded by conducting its own firing drills in the same area.
Seoul also accused North Korea of having continued artillery firing drills in the area on Saturday and Sunday.
Donald Trump (left) and Kim Jong-un (right)
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Pyongyang claimed it only carried out such drills on Sunday.
The disputed sea boundary has been the scene of three bloody naval skirmishes since 1999.
Two attacks blamed on North Korea killed 50 South Koreans in the area in 2010.
Military firing exercises in the area violate the Koreas’ fragile 2018 agreement to ease front-line tensions.