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North Korea has declared that it is ready to commence a nuclear war with the US and that it will never put its nuclear programme on the negotiating table until all the hostility from the US and their nuclear capabilities are completely eradicated.

While speaking to the UN General Assembly's disarmament committee on Monday, the North Korean deputy UN ambassador stated that the situation on the Korean Peninsula "has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment".

This year, Kim said, North Korea completed its "state nuclear force and thus became the full-fledged nuclear power which possesses the delivery means of various ranges, including the atomic bomb, H-bomb and intercontinental ballistic rockets".

"The entire US mainland is within our firing range and if the US dares to invade our sacred territory even an inch, it will not escape our severe punishment in any part of the globe," he warned.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Sunday diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the North Korean crisis "will continue until the first bomb drops".

Kim told the UN's disarmament committee the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - North Korea's official name - hoped for a nuclear-free world, but reiterated the country would never surrender its nuclear capabilities.

"Unless the hostile policy and the nuclear threat of the US is thoroughly eradicated, we will never put our nuclear weapons and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table under any circumstances," Kim said.