DPRK to use all offensive forces including nuclear if attacked, top leader says

SEOUL -- The top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said the country would use all offensive forces, including nuclear weapons, if enemies attempt to use armed forces encroaching upon the DPRK sovereignty, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday.

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, made the remarks while inspecting a training base of the special operation units earlier this week.

Kim stressed that the enemies' threatening rhetoric, action, trick and attempt will not take away the DPRK's nuclear weapons and the country "has irreversibly secured the absolute strength as a nuclear power and the system and function for using it," according to the KCNA report.

"To pray for a good luck of survival in a military conflict with the nuclear weapons state would be a foolish thing," and "if such situation comes, the permanent existence of Seoul and the Republic of Korea would be impossible," the DPRK leader was quoted by the KCNA as saying.

Noting the necessity for the DPRK military force to keep cultivating its strength, Kim stressed that "strength in our hands is the only guarantee for keeping under control the enemy and defending ourselves," the KCNA report said.

During the inspection of the training base of the special operation units in the western area on Wednesday, Kim touted the DPRK special operation forces as the "pivotal and core force" in the country's war deterrence and war-fighting capabilities, while underlining the need of expanding and strengthening the special operation forces into the country's strongest combat forces, the KCNA said.