January 1 - North Korean leader warns of nuclear disaster, threatens US

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said the Korean peninsula will be engulfed by ''massive nuclear disaster'' if war breaks out there again, warning the US it will not be safe in the event of a conflict.
 
''If the war breaks out again in this land, it will bring about a massive nuclear disaster and the US will never be safe,'' Kim said in his New Year message, broadcast on state television. "We are faced with a dangerous situation in which a small, accidental military clash can lead to an all-out war.''
 
Mr Kim added he would not beg for peace and vowed to protect the impoverished but nuclear-armed North with strong self-defence measures against enemies.
 
Even as Mr Kim issued sharp words for the US, the North Korean leader called for better relations with South Korea. ''It is time to end abuse and slander that is only good for doing harm ... We will try hard to improve North-South ties,'' Mr Kim said, adding that ''dark clouds of nuclear war constantly hovered over the Korean peninsula''.
 
The two Koreas remain technically at war under a truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. The United States maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea in joint defence against the North.