US, North Korea edge towards war

Rogue nation threatens to attack military base in Pacific

NORTH Korea and America are creeping closer to a “catastrophic” war as the rogue nation yesterday threatened to attack a US military stronghold while mocking President Donald Trump as “bereft of reason”.

It comes after the President warned the US nuclear arsenal was “far stronger and more powerful than ever before” and he would rain down “fire and fury” if Pyongyang continued its threats.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has moved to reassure Australians the nation would not be automatically forced to join a war if escalating tensions between the two nations boiled over.

North Korea’s army announced yesterday it was considering a missile strike on Guam, a US military stronghold in the Pacific.

General Kim Rak Gyom, of the Korean People’s Army, said “only absolute force” would work on a man “bereft of reason”, the regime’s official KCNA news agency reports.

The general said the army would develop a plan during the next week to launch a strike with four intermediaterange missiles on Guam.

It would then present the plan to leader Kim Jong-un, who would have the final say on whether to launch the strike.

“The military action the KPA is about to take will be an effective remedy for restraining the frantic moves of the US in the southern part of Korea and its vicinity,” the general said.

Ms Bishop yesterday said Australia would not automatically be drawn into a “catastrophic” conflict between the US and North Korea.

“We were not a party in the legal sense to the [Korean War] armistice, so there is no automatic trigger for Australia to be involved,” she said.

“And as far as the ANZUS alliance is concerned, that is an obligation to consult.”

But Australia had been in constant discussions with the US, she said.

She also assured Australians the nation was not Pyongyang’s primary target.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull refused to outline Australia’s preparations in the event of conflict with North Korea yesterday but said the Government was “alert” to the unfolding situation.

“We obviously plan for all contingencies ... but I’m not going to get into speculative territory,” he said.

Mr Trump said the US nuclear arsenal was “far stronger and more powerful than ever before.”

He tweeted earlier this

week: “My first order as President was to renovate and modernise our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before ...”

Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s warning to North Korea of “fire and “fury” was completely unscripted, officials say. The Washington Post reported Mr Trump discussed with Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other advisers a strategy to escalate his rhetoric and deliver a more aggressive and overt challenge to Kim Jong-un, two senior White House officials say.

The message Mr Trump delivered on Tuesday afternoon “was unexpected, but it wasn’t surprising,” The Post reported one of the officials as saying.

Mr Trump this week stunned the world with a boldfaced message to Kim Jong-un, saying his country faced “fire and fury like the world has never seen”. Pyongyang later said it was considering a missile strike near the US Pacific territory of Guam.