North Korea weapons 'may be tactic for takeover of South'

North Korea's nuclear weapons development may be designed to take over arch-rival South Korea and coerce the United States into abandoning its close ally, a senior White House official has said.

Questioning the North's stated purpose of warding off a US invasion, Matt Pottinger, the Asia director on President Donald Trump's National Security Council, said there may be some truth to claims that the North wants a nuclear deterrent to protect its communist dictatorship.