North warns a war could break out at any moment

NEW YORK - A North Korean diplomat, addressing the UN General Assembly, warned on Monday that a war can break out any time on the Korean Peninsula due to mounting military tensions.

“The situation on the peninsula is on the brink of explosion and nobody knows when the war will break out,” said Ri Tong-il, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the UN.

He accused the U.S. of continuing to exacerbate the situation with “increased hostilities” against Pyongyang.

Ri said his communist nation is a nuclear state and the six-way talks on its nuclear program have become “almost a dead body.” The negotiations have not been held since December 2008. Ri dismissed a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

IAEA chief Yukio Amano told the UN that the North’s move is “deeply troubling.” He cited North Korea’s revelation in 2010 of a uranium enrichment facility in Yongbyon.

Ri stressed North Korea has withdrawn from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and it is not subject to rules set by the IAEA, which he claimed “blindly” sides with the U.S.

North Korean officials have often used the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly for efforts to justify its nuclear program and assail Washington.

Yonhap