UNITED NATIONS – A North Korean minister lashed out at the United States on Monday, saying its “hostile” policy has left the Korean peninsula a spark away from a nuclear war.

Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil Yon told the U.N. General Assembly that the Koreas have become “the world’s most dangerous hotspot” and blamed the “hostile” policy of the United States toward North Korea.

Pak said “the vicious cycle of confrontation and aggravation of tension is an ongoing phenomenon on the Korean peninsula, which has become the world’s most dangerous hotspot where a spark of fire could set off a thermonuclear war.”