Foreign minister slams Trump for ‘making trouble’
PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea’s vice foreign minister on Friday blamed President Trump for building up a “vicious cycle” of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, saying that his “aggressive” tweets were “making trouble.”
In an exclusive interview with the Associated Press in Pyongyang, Vice Minister Han Song Ryol also warned the U.S. against provoking North Korea militarily, saying, “We will go to war if they choose.”
“If the U.S. comes with reckless military maneuvers, then we will confront it with the DPRK’s preemptive strike,” Han said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “We’ve got a powerful nuclear deterrent already in our hands, and we certainly will not keep our arms crossed in the face of a U.S. preemptive strike.”
Speaking through an interpreter provided by the foreign ministry, Han was calm and polite but forceful throughout the 40-minute interview.
Tensions are deepening as the U.S. has sent an aircraft carrier to waters off the peninsula and is conducting its biggest-ever joint military exercises with South Korea. Pyongyang, meanwhile, recently launched a ballistic missile, and some experts say it could conduct another nuclear test at virtually anytime.
“That is something that our headquarters decides,” Han said of what would be North Korea’s sixth nuclear test. “At a time and at a place where the headquarters deems necessary, it will take place.”
Many North Korea watchers believe North Korea could have a viable nuclear warhead and a ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland on Trump’s watch as president — within the next few years.
Han, however, said North Korea blames Trump and the U.S. for the rising tensions. He cited not only the U.S.-South Korean war games and the deployment of the aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson, but also a tweet Trump posted Tuesday in which he said the North is “looking for trouble.” Trump also tweeted that if China doesn’t do its part to rein in Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, the U.S. can handle it.
“Trump is always making provocations with his aggressive words,” Han said. “It’s not the DPRK but the U.S. and Trump that makes trouble.”
The annual military exercises have consistently infuriated the North, which views them as rehearsals for an invasion. Washington and Seoul deny that, but reports that exercises have included “decapitation strikes” aimed at the North’s leadership have fanned Pyongyang’s anger.