Residents hold US and North Korean flags while they wait for motorcade of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un en route to the Metropole Hotel for the second US- North Korea summit in Hanoi, Vietnam February 28, 2019.
REUTERS/Kham/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsSEOUL, Oct 17 (Reuters) - North Korea's nuclear programme is a self-defensive move to head off a nuclear war in the face of the U.S. pursuit of "nuclear supremacy," state media KCNA said on Tuesday.
The comments come as nuclear-armed North Korea has raised alarm in the region with regular launches of missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that can strike the continental United States.
"The reality urgently requires the DPRK, which is standing in confrontation with the U.S. imperialism, the most aggressive nuclear war criminal force, to bolster up its self-defensive military capabilities for deterring a nuclear war," Kim said.
DPRK, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is North Korea's official name.
Persons:
Kim Jong, KCNA, Kim Kwang Myong, Kim, Washington, Kim Tong Myong, nukes, Hyonhee Shin, Sonali Paul
Organizations:
Metropole Hotel, REUTERS, Rights, Foreign Ministry's Institute for Disarmament, Peace, U.S, Strategic, North, DPRK, Democratic People's, Society for International Politics, Thomson
Locations:
North Korea, Hanoi, Vietnam, Rights SEOUL, U.S, United States, Russia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North, Europe