US ‘is locked and loaded’
Trump steps up war of words
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump issued a new threat to North Korea yesterday, saying the US military was “locked and loaded” as Pyongyang accused him of driving the Korean Peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.
Trump kept up the war of words on Twitter shortly after the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, put out a statement blaming him for the escalated tensions.
The president, who is holidaying at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort, described US military readiness in stark terms: “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely,” he tweeted. “Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”
Trump maintained pressure on the North after a week of incendiary rhetoric including his warning of unleashing “fire and fury” on Pyongyang. US allies in the region reacted with alarm and senior US officials scrambled to play down his comments.
Still, Trump amplified the warning on Thursday, saying maybe his “fire and fury” threat “wasn’t tough enough”.
US Defence Secretary James Mattis later tempered Trump’s harsh words, saying the US still preferred a diplomatic approach. A war would be “catastrophic,” he said.
Asked if the US was prepared to handle a hostile act by North Korea, Mattis said: “We are ready.”
Chairperson of Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford left Washington on Thursday to visit Japan, China and South Korea. While the trip has been long planned, the issue of North Korea is likely to be a priority, officials said.
Tension in the region has risen since the reclusive North staged two nuclear bomb tests last year and launched two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July in defiance of world powers. Trump has said he would not allow Pyongyang to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the US.
As Pyongyang and Washington traded threats, Russia and China weighed in. In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that risks of a military conflict over North Korea’s nuclear programme are high and Moscow is deeply concerned. He encouraged Pyongyang and Washington to sign up to a joint Russian-Chinese plan, under which North Korea would freeze its missile tests and the US and South Korea would impose a moratorium on large-scale military exercises.
Earlier in Beijing, a Chinese state-run newspaper said yesterday China should remain neutral if North Korea launches an attack that threatens the US sounding a warning for Pyongyang over its plans to fire missiles near the US Pacific territory of Guam.
“China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten US soil first and the US retaliates, China will stay neutral,” the Global Times, which is widely read but does not represent government policy, said in an editorial.
“If the US and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so,” it said.
Trump said Kim was not going to get away with his “horrific” comments and disrespecting America.
“Let’s see what he does with Guam. He does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody’s seen before, what will happen in North Korea,” Trump said on Thursday. – Reuters