TRUMP UPS WAR OF WORDS WITH PYONGYANG

▶ But diplomatic moves continue despite threats from both sides

Any hope of easing the war of words between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has faded after the US president promised “big, big trouble” if Pyongyang attacked Guam.

Mr Trump issued a direct warning on Twitter to Mr Kim, telling him US armed forces were “locked and loaded” should North Korea dare to fire missiles close to America’s island territory in the Pacific.

He was more specific in a later tweet about the presence of B-1B bombers stationed on Guam, which have recently flown missions with Japanese and South Korean fighter jets.

It was Mr Trump’s most explicit warning of action in a week of threats, with Pyongyang accusing him of “driving the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war”.

Russia, China and Germany expressed concern at the threats coming from both countries, while the US and South Korea said they would go ahead with military exercises planned for later in the month.

In a conversation with Mr Trump on Friday, Chinese president Xi Jinping agreed that North Korea must stop provocative behaviour, but urged both parties to maintain restraint.

The two presidents repeated their commitment to ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons and affirmed the importance of a recent UN resolution in the quest for peace and stability.

Meanwhile, Japan has set up a missile defence system in the Shimane, Ehime, Hiroshima and Kochi prefectures, its ministry of defence said.

At the same time it emerged that Washington and Pyongyang were communicating on a back channel set up by the North Korean mission to the UN in New York.

Mr Trump’s public statements remained as uncompromising as ever as he threatened force for a third time in as many days.

Analysts said the string of threats risked backing Mr Trump into a corner of his own making and raised the chances of an accidental confrontation.

Rodger Baker, vice president of strategic analysis at Stratfor, said Mr Trump appeared to be following a US strategy to demonstrate it was serious about taking military action.

“That said, I’m not sure the military or the state department would like him to make quite the statements he is making and in the way he is making them,” Mr Baker said.

“When he said ‘if they threaten us we will rain down fire and fury’, the next day they threatened us and we did not rain down fire and fury, so now he has to redefine what threatened means.”

Pyongyang says it is finalising a plan to send missiles just off the coast of Guam, about 3,400 kilometres away.