USA 'in range of North Korea's nukes' warns top aide of Kim Jong-un

21:40, 7 May 2015
By Don Mackay

The senior insider says the dictatorship would be prepared to strike against the United States mainland if necessary

Warning: North Korea has invested huge amounts in its nuclear defence

North Korea has the missile capability to strike the mainland United States and would do so if America “forced their hand”, a senior insider has revealed.

Park Yong-Chol, a deputy director for North Korea’s Institute for Research into National Reunification, said: “We invested a lot of money in our nuclear defence to counter the U.S. threat.

"Huge sums that could have been spent in other sectors to improve our national economy. But this strategic decision was the right one.”

He added: "We’re a major power politically, ideologically and militarily. The last remaining objective is to make the DPRK a strong economic power.”

He denounced a report by South Korea’s spy agency that leader Kim Jong-un had ordered the execution of 15 senior officials as “malicious slander” but acknowledged that executions took place.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told a parliamentary committee last week Kim had ordered the 15 officials, including the vice forestry minister, to be executed for challenging his authority, and said Kim used fear and intimidation to rule the country.

Intimidation: Jang Song Thaek, the uncle of Kim Jong Un, was executed

  But Park in a rare interview said: “Malicious slander. Especially as they try to link the allegations against the name of our Supreme Leader Marshall Kim Jong-un.”

He acknowledged that executions of those who try to overthrow or subvert the government took place.

“It is very normal for any country to go after hostile elements and punish them and execute them," he said.

In 2013, Kim purged and executed his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, once considered the second most powerful man in the North, for corruption and crimes against the state.

North Korea, heavily sanctioned by the United Nations for its missile and nuclear tests, is technically still at war with the South after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

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