N. Korea threatens nuke war after U.S. gets loud
THE U.S. AND North Korea exchanged stern warnings Monday amid unprecedented tensions on the Korean Peninsula — with the rogue regime threatening that “thermonuclear war may break out at any moment.”
North Korea’s deputy UN ambassador, furious over a visit to the region by Vice President Pence and increased military activity by the U.S. and South Korea, accused the White House of “insisting on gangster-like logic” and having created “the world’s biggest hot spot.”
Kim In Ryong Un added that his boss Kim Jong Un’s Communist regime would be “ready to react to any mode of war desired by the U.S. … if the U.S. dares opt for a military action.
“We never beg for peace but we will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms and keep to the road chosen by ourselves,” he said during a press conference.
Escalating the already tense situation were comments from a second North Korean official, who vowed that the regime would “be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis.”
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-Ryol, in an interview with the BBC, threatened “all-out war” if the U.S. took any kind of military action.
The rhetoric came as the Trump administration continued its tough talk about North Korea, with the top White House spokesman reiterating that the President would “not be taking any options off the table.”
But White House press secretary Sean Spicer stopped short of issuing ultimatums, telling reporters during his press briefing, “I don’t think you’ll see any red lines.”
Trump, meanwhile, scolded Pyongyang during a brief interview with CNN, telling the network the regime has “got to behave.”
Pence, however, went further during a strongly worded speech from the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
“President Trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out and we want to see change,” Pence said. “North Korea would do well not to test his resolve … or the strength of the armed forces of the United States.
“The era of strategic patience is over," Pence, sporting a brown bomber jacket, added during the unannounced visit to the DMZ.
Later Monday, Pence said in a joint statement alongside South Korean Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn that “all options are on the table” to deal with the North Korean threat and said any use of nuclear weapons by the dictatorship would be met with “an overwhelming and effective response.”
He told reporters during a separate briefing earlier that the White House was hopeful China would use its “extraordinary levers” to pressure North Korea to abandon its weapons program.
Russia — at odds with Washington since Trump ordered missiles fired at a Syrian air base in retaliation for Bashar Assad's use of chemical weapons on his own people — weighed in, too. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he “hoped there will be no unilateral actions” in North Korea “like those we saw recently in Syria.”