North Korea has passed a law allowing pre-emptive nuclear strikes, North Korean state media reported today.

“If the command and control system of the national nuclear forces is in danger of being attacked by foreign hostile forces, a nuclear attack is carried out automatically and immediately,” the law states, KCNA reports.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that with the new law, North Korea “irreversibly acquired the status of a state with nuclear weapons”.

Otherwise, North Korea this year, despite the sanctions, carried out a series of tests, including the testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

US and South Korean officials have warned that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test.