Kim plays with fire

H-bomb test planned for Pacific as Nth Korea baits Trump

KIM Jong-un, in an extraordinary and direct rebuke, called US President Donald Trump “deranged” and says he will “pay dearly” for his threats, a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon.

Hours later, North Korea’s Foreign Minister reportedly said that his country may be planning to test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean to fulfil Mr Kim’s vow to take the “highest-level” action against the US.

Mr Kim said Mr Trump is “unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country”. He also described the US President as “a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire”.

The dispatch was unusual in that it was written in the first person, albeit filtered through the North’s state media, which are part of propaganda efforts meant to glorify Mr Kim.

South Korea’s government said it was the first such direct address to the world by any North Korean leader.

Some analysts saw a clear sign that North Korea would ramp up its weapons testing, which has included missiles meant to target US forces in Asia and the US mainland.

“I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the US pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying the DPRK,” said the statement, carried by North’s official Korean Central News Agency, yesterday.

DPRK is the abbreviation of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country’s response “could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific”.

Such a test would be considered a major provocation by Washington and its allies.

The statement by Mr Kim responded to Mr Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday where he mocked Mr Kim as a “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission”.

Mr Trump also said that if “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea”.