A series of bellicose rhetoric exchanged between North Korea and the United States is credit negative for South Korea, international ratings agency Moody's said Thursday, because it would obscure "the assessment of the risk of a conflagration."

Following North Korea's sixth nuclear test and other missile launches, US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have exchanged a string of warlike rhetoric. 

Trump has vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea if the North threatens the US or its allies. Earlier this week, a North Korean diplomat told the United Nations that "a nuclear war may break out at any moment."

"The increasingly strident rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang is credit negative for (South) Korea, particularly because there is very little visibility on what will drive decision-making in either North Korea or the US" said Steffen Dyck, Vice President of Moody's Investors Service, in a statement.

"The rising uncertainty in relation to policy objectives and tactics obscures the assessment of the risk of a conflagration," Dyck said.

Dyck added, "the increasingly strident tone of key decision-makers in the US, and on occasion the contradictory messages coming from Washington, have increased the likelihood that tensions erupt into armed conflict." (Yonhap)