N. Korea threatens to shoot down U.S. planes
Regime says President Trump has declared war
North Korea threatened on Monday to shoot down U.S. military planes, even if they are not in the country’s airspace, arguing that President Donald Trump’s bellicose tweets amount to a declaration of war.
The remark by Ri Yong Ho, Pyongyang’s foreign minister, represented another escalation in tensions stoked by a series of insults and threats hurled between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his regime. Even though Pyongyang’s military capability is considered far outmatched by U.S. technology and pilot training, Ri’s rhetoric raised anxieties that a simple miscalculation could spark a military confrontation and spiral out of control.
“Fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary General António Guterres.
Last week, at the U.N. General Assembly, Ri revealed that his country is considering testing a hydrogen bomb somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. On Monday, he made a more direct threat against the U.S., which Pyongyang considers its arch enemy, bent on destroying the regime.
“The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country,” said Ri, speaking to reporters in New York in reference to Trump’s comments at the General Assembly last week and again Saturday on Twitter.
“Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country.
“The question of who won’t be around much longer will be answered then,” Ri added, responding to Trump’s weekend tweet warning that if Ri “echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!” Trump has repeatedly used the belittling epithet for Kim Jong Un.
North Korea’s willingness to shoot down U.S. aircraft is not in question. It has done so before, most notably in 1969, during the Nixon administration, when a Navy plane on a reconnaissance mission was downed by North Korean MiGs over the Sea of Japan. All 31 Americans on board were killed. There was no retaliation and the United States resumed reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea a week later.