NORTH KOREAN THREAT
Pyongyang warns of nuclear war
LONDON • Ahead of major celebrations this weekend — including a possible nuclear test — North Korea raised its threats against Donald Trump warning that the world was on the brink of “thermo-nuclear war.”
Kim Jong Un has promised a “big event” Saturday to mark the “Day of the Sun,” the 105th anniversary of the birth of the nation’s founder, his grand- father Kim Il Sung. There was speculation that event could be North Korea’s sixth underground nuclear test.
But with a U. S. aircraft carrier group moving toward the region, North Korea vowed a “merciless” response to any provocation.
In a statement the North Korean People’s Army said the Trump administration had “entered the path of open threat and blackmail.” It said, “The closer such big targets as nuclear powered aircraft carriers come, the greater would be the effect of merciless strikes.”
North Korea said U. S. military bases in South Korea, and South Korea’s presidential Blue House, would be “pulverized within a few minutes.”
A spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry accused the U. S. of “pushing the situation to the brink of war” and “creating a dangerous situation in which a thermo-nuclear war may break out any moment.”
In his first public comments since his appointment in January, Mike Pompeo, the director of the CIA, warned that rogue states should “take note” of Trump’s forthright military decisions in Syria and Afghanistan.
He said the White House was now “prepared to engage in activities that are different from what America has been doing these past few years.”
He indicated that the potential development of long-range nuclear weapons in North Korea would soon have to be dealt with.
The U. S. president has warned North Korea that he is prepared to act unilaterally and reports from Washington Friday said that detailed plans for a preemptive strike this weekend were in place. China has warned that a military conflict over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program could break out “at any moment” and talks aimed at averting a military confrontation were ongoing in Pyongyang Friday night.
The Kremlin said it was watching developments with “great concern,” while Japan said it was taking “every possible measure” to prepare for any contingency on the Korean Peninsula.
The potential for a showdown has escalated after Trump surprised world leaders with a series of unexpected military operations including the U.S. Air Force dropping the “mother of all bombs” on an ISIL target in Afghanistan.
Trump dispatched a carrier strike group to the Korean Peninsula following warnings that America would act unilaterally to “solve the problem” of North Korea’s weapons program.
Pompeo said several American governments had been trying to deal with the threat of North Korea “putting a nuclear warhead into the United States, and we’re simply closer now than we have ever been at any time in North Korea’s history.”
A pre- emptive U. S. military strike could involve using Tomahawk cruise missiles, to hit North Korea’s nuclear test site. The U.S. could also deploy cyber attacks.
William Perry, defence secretary under President Bill Clinton, said there was a danger any U.S. strike could escalate into a nuclear war.
He said: “We have to understand the regime in North Korea. While they are evil, they are not crazy. They are not seeking martyrdom. They are not suicidal. I don’t think they are going to launch an unprovoked nuclear attack. That’s bluster on their part.
“The danger is we could get into some kind of a military conflict with them and it could escalate into a nuclear war. If they are cornered and their regime is about to collapse then they might use the nuclear weapons.”
Richard Bitzinger, a military expert at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said Trump had few options at his disposal.
He said: “The North Koreans are already incredibly paranoid. This would only solidify their beliefs ... It might even trigger an inadvertent war.”