UNITED NATIONS — A North Korean minister says the Korean peninsula has become the world's most dangerous hotspot where a spark could set off a nuclear war.

Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil Yon lashed out at the United States in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly Monday, blaming Washington's "hostile" policy toward North Korea for a "vicious cycle of confrontation and aggravation" that has brought the peninsula close to a nuclear conflict.

Pak also accused the United States of seeking to occupy the entire Korean peninsula by force and "use it as a stepping stone for realizing its strategy of dominating the whole of Asia."

He said the United States has finalized scenarios for a new Korean War and is waiting to implement them but has been deterred by North Korea.