Responding to US President Barack Obama's comments that the North Korean regime was doomed, Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of the impenetrable country said that Pyongyang would not sit idly by "with rabid dogs barking".
State-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim "made the remarks while overseeing a joint naval and air force drill simulating an attack on a US carrier strike group off South Korea". The report did not mention the venue of the drill. It is believed that the war games took place on Friday.
Kim solemnly declared that "we have no willingness to sit any longer with the rabid dogs openly barking that they will bring us down by the method of bringing about 'changes' the socialist system, the cradle which our people consider dearer than their own lives", KCNA said, Channel NewsAsia reported.
He further said that North Korea was ready to counter "any war, including a war by conventional armed forces and a nuclear war".
President Obama, during an interview on YouTube from the White House on 22 January, had spoken of the eventual collapse of the North Korean regime. He called it "the most isolated, the most sanctioned, the most cut-off nation on Earth".
"We will keep on ratcheting the pressure, but part of what's happening is ... the internet over time is going to be penetrating this country," Obama said. "Over time you will see a regime like this collapse," he said. He added that the United States was looking for ways to accelerate the flow of information into the country.
The North Korean leader's remarks were not the first reactions from the country. On Sunday, a spokesman for North Korea's foreign ministry slammed President Obama's comments, terming them as "nothing but a poor grumble of a loser". He further said that any attempt to topple the regime would result in strengthening unity among its people.
The country has used insulting language against the US President in the past. In December, North Korea's top military body as well as Kim Jong-Un compared President Obama to a "monkey". This had taken place when the row over the hacking of Sony's "The Interview" was going on.
(With inputs from AFP)
