NORTH KOREA A CRUEL DICTATORSHIP: TRUMP

Donald Trump slammed North Korea's "cruel dictatorship" and the severe political oppression inflicted on its people in a speech to Seoul's parliament today. South Korean lawmakers applauded as the US president, whose tour of Asia has been dominated by fears over the nuclear-armed North, vowed not to be intimidated and warned Pyongyang that it should not test American resolve. He called for global solidarity against the isolated nation, but he also offered leader Kim Jong-Un a possible "path towards a much better future". "Far from valuing its people as equal citizens, this cruel dictatorship measures them, scores them, and ranks them based on the most arbitrary indication of their allegiance to the state," Trump said in the address. The North, which this year carried out its sixth nuclear test, generating by far the largest yield to date, has also fired dozens of missiles in recent months. Two have overflown key US ally Japan, and the regime has claimed that it now has the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a missile that can travel as far as the US mainland. Trump, who previously vowed a North Korean Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capability would "never happen", again warned Pyongyang not to consider an attack. “We will not "allow American cities to be threatened with destruction," he said in Seoul. "America does not seek conflict or confrontation, but we will never run from it.