Anti-nuke group warns against nuclear war

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons' (ICAN) executive director Beatrice Fihn made the remarks on Sunday, while accepting the prestigious prize in Oslo.

"The deaths of millions may be one tiny tantrum away...We have a choice, the end of nuclear weapons or the end of us," she said.

"A moment of panic" could result in the "destruction of cities and the deaths of millions of civilians" from nuclear arms, she said, adding that the risk of such arms was "greater today than during the Cold War."

ICAN is a coalition of hundreds of grassroots non-governmental groups which campaign for the UN nuclear prohibition treaty.

Fihn's remarks were made in an apparent reference to Washington-Pyongyang tensions brewing in the Korean Peninsula.

US President Donald Trump has on several occasions threatened the North with total destruction, while North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has responded along the same lines.

Tensions have been building on the peninsula following a series of nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang as well as threats of war and personal insults traded between Trump and the North Korean leader.

North Korea has been under a raft of crippling United Nations sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear tests as well as multiple rocket and missile launches.

Pyongyang has firmly defended its military program as a deterrent against the hostile policies of the US and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan.

KD