North Korea's Kim threatens to destroy South Korea with nuclear strikes if provoked

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened to use nuclear weapons and destroy South Korea permanently if provoked, state media reported Friday, after the South’s leader warned that 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, 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.

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

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, Yoon said the day that North Korea tries to use nuclear weapons would be the end of the Kim government because Kim would face “the resolute and overwhelming response” of the South Korean-U.S. alliance.

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

In a derisive comment, Kim called 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, Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, also ridiculed South Korea's showcasing of the Hyunmoo-5 missile, saying there there’s no way for South Korea to counter the North Korea’s nuclear forces with conventional weapons.

Since adopting an escalatory nuclear doctrine in 2022, Kim has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively. But many foreign experts say it's still unlikely that he would use his nuclear arms first because his military is outmatched by the U.S. and its allied forces. In July, South Korea and the U.S. signed a defense guideline on integrating South Korea's conventional capabilities with the U.S. nuclear forces to better deal with North Korea's advancing nuclear program. South Korea has no nuclear weapons.

Animosities between the Koreas are at the worst point in years with Kim's provocative run of missile tests and the South Korean-U.S. military exercises intensifying in a cycle of tit-for-tat. All communication channels and exchange programs between the rivals remain stalled since 2019, when a broader U.S.-North Korea diplomacy on ending the North's nuclear program collapsed.

In January, Kim called for rewriting North Korea’s constitution to eliminate the idea of a peaceful unification between the war-divided countries and to cement the South as an “invariable principal enemy.”

He also reiterated that his country does not recognize the Northern Limit Line, a western sea boundary that was drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. He called for the new constitution to include a clear definition of the North’s territories. North Korea has traditionally insisted upon a boundary that encroaches deeply into waters currently controlled by South Korea.

On Friday, South Korea’s military said North Korea was again flying balloons likely carrying trash across the border into South Korea. Since late May, North Korea has launched thousands of rubbish-carrying balloons toward South Korea, prompting South Korea to resume anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at border areas.

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A North Korean flag flutters in the wind atop a 160-meter (525-foot) tower in the North's Kijong-dong village near the truce village of Panmunjom, seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A South Korean national flag flutters in the wind at the Unification Observation Post as North Korean balloons, left, fly in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A visitor holds her smartphone from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, as North Korean balloons, top right, fly, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

North Korean balloons are seen from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

What local media reports "trash" fall from balloons flying over Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, as they are also reportedly sent from North Korea. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, visits a special operation forces unit at a western district in North Korea Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, visits a special operation forces unit at a western district in North Korea Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

RIPON, Wis. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris rallied with Republican Liz Cheney in the birthplace of the modern Republican Party on Thursday as the pair delivered a double-barreled denunciation of GOP nominee Donald Trump as a dire threat to democracy.

With some people hoisting signs “Country over Party,” Harris told the crowd that “people of every party must stand together” to reject Trump, citing his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election and his failure to quell the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.

It was an improbable moment — a Democratic nominee giving a nod to a rival party member and to the origins of the opposing party in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign — and it demonstrated how much Harris is attempting to win over moderate and crossover Republican voters.

Harris said of Trump, “He refused to accept the will of the people and to accept the results of an election that was free and fair."

“The president of the United States must not look at our country through the narrow lens of ideology or party partisanship or self-interest," she added. "Our nation is not some spoil to be won. The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised.”

Cheney is one of Trump's most ardent antagonists. She is the daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and was the top GOP lawmaker on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, earning Trump’s disdain and effectively exiling herself from her own party.

“Violence does not and must never determine who rules us. Voters do," Cheney told the crowd as she recounted Trump refusing to act as he watched the violent attack on television. Someone in the crowd yelled “coward!” Others booed.

Adding to the surreal nature of the event, the crowd cheered references to Dick Cheney and to another Republican former vice president: Mike Pence, who refused to bow to pressure from Trump and attempt to stop the certification in Congress of Biden's 2020 victory.

“He praised the rioters. He did not condemn them. That’s who Donald Trump is,” Liz Cheney said, while urging the crowd to "meet this moment. I ask you to stand in truth. To reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump.”

In an interview Thursday night with Fox News Channel, Trump said of Harris and Cheney: “I think they hurt each other. I think they’re so bad, both of them.”

Cheney lost her Wyoming seat to a Trump-endorsed candidate two years ago and endorsed Harris, the Democratic nominee, last month. The two women appeared together in Ripon, home to a white schoolhouse where a series of meetings held in 1854 to oppose slavery’s expansion led to the start of the Republican Party.

“I know that she loves our country, and I know she will be a president for all Americans,” Cheney said of Harris. Noting that she herself remains conservative, Cheney said she was “honored to join her in this urgent cause.”

Harris is on a two-day Wisconsin and Michigan swing, while Trump was in Michigan on Thursday as both candidates grapple for wins in the “blue wall” battleground states, which also include Pennsylvania.

While Cheney and Harris spoke, the former president took his social media site to say Democrats and prosecutors have lied about the "huge crowd of Patriots gathered in Washington, D.C. on January 6th.”

That was a far cry from President Joe Biden's reaction. Arriving back at the White House after touring damage from Hurricane Helene in Georgia and Florida, Biden said of Cheney: “She made one of the most consequential speeches I’ve ever heard. She has character.”

“I know her dad,” Biden added. “We argue like hell, but I always admired his courage and honesty. What she did not took only political courage, but physical courage.”

Harris’ visit to Wisconsin came a day after a federal judge unsealed a 165-page court filing outlining prosecutors’ case against Trump for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and obstruction.

Trump didn't mention the document filed by special counsel Jack Smith or Cheney's appearance with Harris during an 82-minute speech at a rally in Saginaw County, Michigan. In 2020, Biden won the bellwether county by a slim 303 votes, contributing to his victory in the state.

As Trump spoke, his campaign announced he'll appear in Georgia on Friday with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. The two men have made peace after Trump in August unleashed a blistering attack on Kemp, whom he has faulted for not giving in to his efforts to overturn his loss in 2020.

During the 2020 campaign, Cheney criticized Harris as “a radical liberal" who “wants to recreate America in the image of what’s happening on the streets of Portland & Seattle,” a reference to unrest that took place in those cities after the murder of George Floyd.

But Jan. 6 was a turning point for Liz Cheney and her family. Both Cheneys are backing Harris, part of a cadre of current and former Republican officials who have broken with the vast majority of their party, which remains in Trump’s corner. Harris wants to portray her candidacy as a patriotic choice for independent and conservative voters who were disturbed by Trump’s unwillingness to cede power. Trump continues to deny his defeat with false claims of voter fraud.

Harris on Thursday also was endorsed by Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a young White House aide during Trump's presidency and described during a hearing of Cheney's Jan. 6 congressional committee how she grew disgusted by Trump’s refusal to stop the rioters that day. Harris' campaign also began airing ads targeting Republicans, independents and former Trump voters in battleground states.

Cheney’s presence prompted some dissonance for Harris supporters in the Ripon audience, especially those who remember her father’s role as a Republican headliner.

Victor Romero, 46, said it was “a little weird” to be at an event with her.

“I still don’t like Liz Cheney’s politics," he said. "But I’m glad that she understands the Republican Party that currently exists is just for Trump.”

Younger voters, though, reported knowing Cheney primarily for standing up to Trump.

“She stuck to her morals," said Kynaeda Gray, 22.

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti in Saginaw, Michigan, Will Weissert in Washington and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris applauds at a campaign event with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., at Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., left, attends a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, left, arrives to speak at a campaign event with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., right, at Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks at a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., arrives to speak at a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign event at the Ryder Center at Saginaw Valley State University, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in University Center, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Ryder Center at Saginaw Valley State University, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in University Center, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures at a campaign event at Discovery World, Friday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris boards Air Force Two at Augusta Regional Airport in Augusta, Ga., Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, en route to Washington, after visiting the area impacted by Hurricane Helene. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)