North Korea 'could destroy world with just three bombs', regime apologist claims

Reclusive state's self-styled special delegate says 'Korea is perfectly prepared with nuclear and thermonuclear weapons'

North Korean military hardware on display earlier this month on the Day of the Sun (REUTERS)

North Korea could destroy the entire world with just "three or four" thermonuclear bombs, according to a man who styles himself as an international representative of the regime.

"No one will touch North Korea—if they touch it the people will defend it with guns and missiles," Alejandro Cao de Benos, a Spaniard who says he is a "special delegate" of the reclusive dictatorship, has claimed.

"Korea is perfectly prepared with nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. We have the H-bomb," he said in an interview with the Argentinian website Infobae.

The IT consultant has made a name for himself defending the North's dictatorial regime and organising tourist visits in the country.

He told The Independent in 2012: "There's no one person that decides everything and can do whatever he wants."

Mr Cao de Benos has also claimed North Korea's prison camps, where Human Rights Watch said people "perform forced labour in dangerous and sometimes life-threatening conditions", are in fact "re-education" camps.

"We believe not in punishment but in rehabilitation. It's a kind of psychological therapy," he said.

In his latest comments, Mr Cao de Benos said that while the US "has many more missiles than Korea", it was "not a question of quantity but of the potency of the detonation. One thermonuclear bomb is 100 times more powerful than a nuclear one.

"Three or four of those is sufficient to end the entire world."

His comments come at a time of heightened tension as Washington and Pyongyang trade rhetoric over the Kim regime's programme of missile tests.

Donald Trump has attempted to strike a tough tone, threatening to "properly deal" with the regime if China is unable to rein in its ally and sending what he described as an "armada" of warships to the region.

But Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday: "We truly believe that, as our allies in the region and China bring that pressure to bear, there is a chance that we can achieve a historic objective of a nuclear-free Korea peninsula by peaceful means.

"We are encouraged by the steps that China has taken so far."