TRUMP, KIM BLOW WAR TRUMPETS
Pyongyang threatens to strike U.s. airbase in gUam with missiles
washington — President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States’ nuclear arsenal was “more powerful than ever”, in a fresh warning to North Korea over its repeated missile tests.
Hours after putting Pyongyang on notice that it faced “fire and fury” over its weapons programme, Trump took to Twitter to proclaim that the US military’s nuclear capability had become stronger since he came to power.
And after North Korea said it was considering a missile strike near the US Pacific territory of Guam, Trump’s top diplomat delivered a message of reassurance to its residents and military personnel as he made a stop-over on the island.
Trump’s “fire and fury” comments triggered expressions of concern from China as well as from US allies. His tweets also dashed hopes of a cooling of tensions. “My first order as President was to renovate and modernise our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before,” Trump wrote.
“Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”
Tensions will continue to mount and could eventually develop into a black swan event that the markets are not prudently considering. Steve Hanke, Professor at Johns Hopkins University
Warning of “fire and fury,” President Donald Trump answered North Korea’s threats with rhetoric the nuclear-armed nation might appreciate. The risk now is the tough talk leading to war.
Trump’s foray into North Koreastyle bombast injects new uncertainty into the increasingly fragile, six-decade-old truce between the United States and the communist country.
While Trump may have delivered some of the strongest words of a US president in recent memory, his talk of military action “like the world has never seen” jars with the message of top American officials to cooperate with China on pressuring North Korea and ulti- mately seeking diplomatic negotiations.
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump told reporters in New Jersey. Hours later, the next threat arrived.
Delivering what it called a “serious warning” to the US, an unnamed army spokesman was quoted in state media talking about “enveloping” America’s Pacific territory of Guam in missile fire to counteract US bombers that are based there and fly over South Korea — and “get on the nerves” of the North.
The competing threats escalated tensions even further. Although it wasn’t clear if Trump and the Koreans were responding directly to each other, the heightened rhetoric added to the potential for a miscalculation that might bring the nuclear-armed nations into conflict.
Trump spoke after The Washington Post reported that US intelligence officials believes the North can now fit a nuclear bomb on a missile, taking its claims of being able to punish the United States with an atomic attack closer to reality. Its recent tests of intercontinental missiles appear, after years of North Korean efforts, to have finally put the US in range.
Whereas previous American leaders have sought to avoid rhetorical clashes with Pyongyang, Trump readily joined the fight. His critics were quick to pounce, suggesting he risked playing into North Korean efforts to divide the US from its military-averse allies in Asia and reinforcing claims that Washington isn’t interested in nuclear disarmament, and really wants to oust the Kim family dynasty. “You got to be sure you can do what you say you’re going to do,” Republican Sen. John McCain, a frequent Trump critic, said of the president’s comments. “That kind of rhetoric, I’m not sure it helps. The great leaders I’ve seen don’t threaten unless they’re ready to act and I’m not sure that President Trump is ready to act.”
It wasn’t clear what threats Trump was referring to., Pyongyang’s blasted a new set of UN sanctions against the country, saying it would make the United States pay a “thousand-fold for all the heinous crimes” committed against North Korea.
Such threats are routine from the Stalinist state, which often speaks of turning neighbour South Korea’s capital into a “sea of fire”. —
Donald Trump US President north korea best not make any more threats to the United states. they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen