A senior North Korean official says a hostile U.S. policy toward Pyongyang has made the Korean peninsula the world's most dangerous hotspot.

Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil Yon told the United Nations General Assembly Monday that the Koreas are just a spark away from a nuclear war, thanks to the United States. He accused the U.S. of planning to use force to occupy the peninsula as a stepping stone to dominating all of Asia.

Pak claimed that what he called the North's patience and self-defensive deterrent has prevented war in Korea.

U.S. officials decided not to respond to Pak.

The United States, along with China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, have failed to persuade the North to give up its nuclear ambitions in exchange for badly needed food aid and the chance for normalized relations.