The threat posed by North Korea is "terrible" but it would be a mistake for market participants to significantly alter their portfolios on concerns of a nuclear war, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said.
"I think there's a higher chance of something going wrong in the Korean Peninsula, it's slightly higher than it was before," he told CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview on Friday.
"But I don't think it's going to change my view of how we should go around the world and work with each other and grow our economies. It's just this terrible threat hanging out there," he said on the sidelines of an investor summit in New Delhi, India.
His comments came as North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong Ho said that Pyongyang could consider a test of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean, according to reports from the South Korean official news agency.
The rogue state has been on a growing standoff with the world, in particular with the United States for the past months, after proceeding with nuclear tests and being vocal against Washington.
On Thursday, Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, called President Donald Trump a "frightened dog" after the latter said he would "totally destroy" North Korea.
However, Dimon said that he would not "price a crisis" into markets over the North Korea nuclear threat. "I think that would be a mistake," Dimon said.
"As I pointed out before, geopolitics is always a surprise, sometimes positive, sometimes negative, it always scares you when you read the paper in the morning. But in history of mankind it usually resolves itself. I'm not saying I'm not prepared for a bad outcome, I'm simply saying I wouldn't expect a bad outcome."
Asian stocks dropped on Friday morning following the latest news from North Korea. As a result, the Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc rose as investors searched for safety.
Source: Bloomberg Pro Terminal
Trader I. Ivanov
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