MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax) - Pyongyang stands ready to respond to any provocation by the United States, including by resorting to all-out hostilities, Minister Plenipotentiary at the North Korean Embassy in Moscow Jing Jong Heb said.
"The situation in the Korean Peninsula is explosive. The U.S. and the South Korean puppets conduct large-scale and dangerous military exercises off the Korean Peninsula's coast every year," Jing said at a meeting with Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky at the State Duma.
"[North Korea] has developed its own nuclear deterrence forces in order to protect itself from nuclear threats coming from the U.S.," the diplomat said.
"As our army's representative has said, our people are ready to respond to all threats. If it is about an all-out war, we are also ready for an all-out war," he said.