No Happy New Year wish from Kim as he threatens US with nuclear war
NORTH Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un used his New Year message yesterday to threaten war with the US.
He boasted that a “nuclear button” is always on his desk and the whole of the United States is within range.
But the unpredictable leader also held out an olive branch to South Korea in an apparent bid to drive a wedge between it and America, its main backer.
Kim said he is considering sending a team to next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea, adding it was time to “thaw” their frozen relations.
President Trump declined to react to the tyrant’s threat. He would only say: “We’ll see, we’ll see.”
North Korea has defied UN sanctions to develop a nuclear weapons capability and in September test-detonated its sixth and biggest nuclear bomb. Kim Jong-un has also test-fired several intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Mr Trump has previously vowed to react to any threat to
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the US or its allies with “fire and fury”. Kim, in his televised annual New Year message, kept up the incendiary rhetoric.
He said the US “is within the range of our nuclear strike and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office and this is just a reality, not a threat”.
He stressed that North Korea is “a peace-loving and responsible nuclear power” and would only use weapons if threatened. ONLY one in five “child asylum seekers” caught lying about their age to get into Britain is ever kicked out, shocking figures reveal.
An investigation by the Daily Express has exposed the extent to which adult migrants are prepared to cheat their way into the UK by posing as vulnerable children.
Previously unseen data obtained using Freedom of Information laws revealed that 13,641 applications from “unaccompanied asylum seeking children” were made to the UK between 2010 and 2016.
Of these, Home Office figures showed 2,644 were actually found to be over 18 when their age was disputed. Yet only 580 were removed, either forcibly or voluntarily.
Latest available figures for the year ending September 2017 reveal that 66 per cent of 692 individuals whose ages were challenged by the Home Office were found to be over 18, despite claiming they were vulnerable children seeking sanctuary.
Experts last night said the negligible risk of ever being thrown out of Britain – even when they are caught lying – was the reason thousands keep trying to reach the UK.
Tony Smith, former director general of UK Border Force, said: “There Tony Smith, ex chief of UK Border Force But, he added, his weapons programme was “irreversible with any force”, making it impossible for the US to start a war against North Korea.
At the same time, he dropped his usual hostility to South Korea by calling for lower military tensions on the Korean peninsula and improved ties with his neighbour.
He said: “When it comes to North-South relations, we should lower the military tensions on the Korean Peninsula to create a peaceful environment.” He added: “North Korea’s participation in the Winter Games will be a good opportunity to showcase the national pride and we wish the Games will be a success.
“We should melt the North-South relations.”
Seoul said it welcomed Kim’s offer to send a delegation to hold talks with the South about participation in the Pyeongchang Games.
South Korean president Moon Jae-in took office last May pledging to engage Pyongyang in dialogue and restore strained ties after nearly a decade of increasing tension.
A specialist on North Korea said Kim seemed to be trying to play divide and rule with the US and South Korea.
Youngshik Daniel Bong, of Yonsei Institute in Seoul, told the BBC that offering talks with the South was a significant shift.
“It appears that by engaging the South, he hopes to create an estrangement between South Korea and the US,” he said. frozen