North Korean soldiers at the border with South Korea. Photo: Wikipedia.

North Korea will pursue its nuclear and ballistic missile program in defiance of the United States and its allies, a top Pyongyang envoy told Reuters on Friday, saying there is now a state of “semi-war” on the divided peninsula.

So Se Pyong, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, denounced huge joint US-South Korean military exercises taking place which he said were aimed at “decapitation of the supreme leadership of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)”.

North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test in January and launched a long-range rocket in February. The South Korean military said on Friday that North Korea had fired a missile into the sea off its east coast.

Read full story at Reuters.