You will be destroyed, Pentagon warns Kim
DONALD Trump warned that the US’s nuclear arsenal was ‘far stronger and more powerful than ever’ yesterday after North Korea threatened to attack the American territory of Guam.
The US President sent a shudder through Asia on Tuesday when he threatened to unleash ‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’ against Kim Jong-Un’s regime.
As the nuclear stand-off escalated, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis told North Korea it should stop ‘actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people’.
He warned any action by North Korea would be grossly overmatched by the US, and that Pyongyang would lose any arms race or conflict it started.
He added that, while Washington was pursuing a diplomatic solution, the combined military power of the US and its allies was the most robust on Earth.
Trump’s comments came after US intelligence concluded that the Korean dictator had developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit inside a ballistic missile – years sooner than expected.
Supersonic bombers from the American air force then carried out a ten-hour mission over the Korean peninsula, prompting Pyongyang to brand the US ‘nuclear war maniacs’.
The Korean People’s Army said it was ‘carefully examining’ a plan to strike the island of Guam in the Western Pacific – where US bombers are stationed.
Amid fears of nuclear war, Mr Trump, who is on holiday in New Jersey, boasted of his military power on Twitter yesterday.
He posted: ‘My first order as president was to renovate and modernise our nuclear arsenal.
‘It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before. Hopefully, we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!’
However, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to ease tensions and said there was no imminent threat from North Korea.
Mr Trump’s chief diplomat suggested that his boss’s sabrerattling had been deliberately robust – because it was the only language Kim would understand.
He said: ‘I think Americans should sleep well at night, have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days.’
Mr Tillerson’s comments came as his plane refuelled in Guam, which is 3,400km from North Korea, on the way to the US after a trip to Asia.
He added: ‘Nothing I have seen and nothing I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours. What the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong-Un would understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language.’
Tensions over the Korean peninsula heightened as Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles. It was understood they were capable of hitting Alaska, but not the US mainland.
But on Tuesday it was reported that intelligence agencies were convinced North Korea has produced a miniaturised nuclear warhead that could fit on one of its ballistic missiles.
The Defence Intelligence Agency’s assessment suggested Kim’s quest to turn North Korea into a fully fledged nuclear power had been accelerated by several years.
Officials also increased estimates of the number of nuclear bombs in Kim’s arsenal to 60.
And they revised expectations of how soon the regime could mount a nuclear strike on the American mainland.
Critics countered that they do not believe North Korea has yet mastered the technology required to prevent its long-range missiles burning up in the atmosphere during re-entry from space.
Asia experts claim Mr Trump’s combative language is playing into the hands of Kim by allowing him to convince his people that he is protecting them from a real US threat to their existence.
Although analysts tend to believe North Korea’s ruler does not want war, they have warned he is willing to push tensions with the US as far as possible.
Mr Tillerson said he hoped international pressure can persuade North Korea to reconsider and begin talks. Britain’s Foreign Office said it would work to ‘maintain pressure on North Korea’.