North Korea threatens South with ‘final destruction’ at U.N. talks

North Korea threatened South Korea with “final destruction” at a United Nations conference on disarmament on Tuesday.

North Korean diplomat Jon Yong Ryong claimed at the meeting that the nation had just taken a “resolute step for self-defense” against its “foreign aggressor,” Reuters reported. “If the U.S. takes a hostile approach toward the DPRK to the last, rendering the situation complicated, [North Korea] will be left with no option but to take the second and third stronger steps in succession,” he said, according to Reuters.

South Korea, Britain and the United States condemned the statements.

British ambassador Joanne Adamson called North Korea’s language “completely inappropriate,” Reuters said. Ambassador Susan Rice, meanwhile, said: “It cannot be allowed that we have expressions which refer to the possible destruction of U.N. member states.”