North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to use nuclear weapons and destroy South Korea permanently if provoked, state media reported on Friday, after the South’s leader warned that Mr Kim’s regime would collapse if he attempted to use nuclear arms.

The exchange of such rhetoric between the rival Koreas is nothing new, but the latest comments come during heightened animosities over the North’s recent disclosure of a nuclear facility and its continuation of missile tests.

Next week, observers say North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament is expected to constitutionally declare a hostile “two-state” system on the Korean Peninsula to formally reject reconciliation with South Korea and codify new national borders.

During a visit to a special operation forces unit on Wednesday, Mr Kim said his military “would use without hesitation all the offensive forces it possesses, including nuclear weapons”, if South Korea attempts to use armed forces encroaching upon the sovereignty of North Korea, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

South Korea Armed Forces Day
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (Kim Hong-Ji/Pool Photo via AP)

“If such a situation comes, the permanent existence of Seoul and the Republic of Korea would be impossible,” Mr Kim said, using South Korea’s official name.

Mr Kim’s statement was a response to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s speech at his country’s Armed Forces Day on Tuesday.

Unveiling South Korea’s most powerful Hyunmoo-5 ballistic missile and other conventional weapons that could target North Korea, Mr Yoon said the day that North Korea tries to use nuclear weapons would be the end of the Kim government because Mr Kim would face “the resolute and overwhelming response” of the South Korean-US alliance.

Mr Kim responded that Mr Yoon’s address fully betrayed his “bellicose temerity” and showed “the security uneasiness and irritating psychology of the puppet forces”.

In a derisive comment, Mr Kim called Mr Yoon “an abnormal man”, saying that “the puppet Yoon bragged about an overwhelming counteraction of military muscle at the doorstep of a state that possesses nuclear weapons”.

On Thursday, Mr Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, also ridiculed South Korea’s showcasing of the Hyunmoo-5 missile, saying there is no way for South Korea to counter the North Korea’s nuclear forces with conventional weapons.

Since adopting an escalatory nuclear doctrine in 2022, Mr Kim has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively. But many foreign experts say it is still unlikely that he would use his nuclear arms first because his military is outmatched by the US and its allied forces.

In July, South Korea and the US signed a defence guideline on integrating South Korea’s conventional capabilities with the US nuclear forces to better deal with North Korea’s advancing nuclear programme. South Korea has no nuclear weapons.