North Korea would ‘annihilate’ South if provoked, warns Kim Jong-un’s sister

Warning points to a rise in tensions on the peninsula after the North conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test in five years

The influential sister of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, has said the country's nuclear forces would annihilate" the South Korean military if it launched a pre-emptive strike against the regime.

Kim Yo-jong, who holds several senior positions in the government and ruling party, said the North had no intention of starting a second Korean war, but would respond if provoked and leave the South's military in a state of total destruction and ruin".