He has warned during official celebrations marking the formation of the DPRK's navy that US actions in the region have become more "frantic" and thus could unleash nuclear war.

"The US imperialists are getting more frantic than ever before in the joint naval military exercises with their vassal forces in the waters around [North Korea]," he said during a Tuesday address before naval officers. And on Wednesday it's being newly reported that—

N.KOREA LAUNCHES BALLISTIC MISSILE INTO EAST SEA: S.KOREA JCS

He added that this is while the US is "putting the deployment of reinforced nuclear strategic assets in the waters around the Korean Peninsula on a permanent basis."

The reference is to the fact that the US Navy this summer docked its nuclear-armed submarine USS Kentucky in South Korea. The Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine made port call at the coastal city of Busan in July, a first which hasn't happened in decades.