Tensions rise after Trump’s ‘war’ tweets
N Korea bolsters defences and threatens to shoot down US bombers over peninsula
NORTH Korea has boosted defences on its east coast, a South Korean legislator said yesterday after the North said US President Donald Trump had declared war and that it would shoot down US bombers flying near the peninsula.
Tensions have escalated since North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3, but the rhetoric has reached a new level in recent days with leaders on both sides exchanging threats and insults.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said Trump’s Twitter comments, in which the US leader said Ri and leader Kim Jong-un “won’t be around much longer” if they acted on their threats, amounted to a declaration of war and that Pyongyang had the right to take countermeasures.
South Korean legislator Lee Cheol-uoo, briefed by the country’s spy agency, said the reclusive North was in fact bolstering its defences by moving aircraft to its east coast and taking other measures after US bombers flew close to the Korean peninsula at the weekend.
Lee said the United States appeared to have disclosed the flight route of the bombers intentionally because North Korea seemed to be unaware.
Ri said on Monday the North’s right to countermeasures included shooting down US bombers “even when they are not inside [our] airspace border”.
“The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country,” he said in New York on Monday, where he had been attending the annual United Nations General Assembly.
“The question of who won’t be around much longer will be answered then,” he said.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders denied on Monday that the US had declared war, calling the suggestion absurd.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said war on the Korean peninsula would have no winner.
“We hope the US and North Korean politicians have sufficient political judgment to realise that resorting to military force will never be a viable way to resolve the peninsula issue and their own concerns,” Lu said.
“We also hope that both sides can realise that being bent on assertiveness and provoking each other will only increase the risk of conflict and reduce room for policy manoeuvres.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking on the sidelines of a UN meeting in New York, said the situation on the peninsula was at a very dangerous stage, the foreign ministry said yesterday.
The urgent task was to prevent North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes progressing, to avoid a further escalation in tensions and to especially prevent resorting to arms, Wang said.
While repeatedly calling for dialogue to resolve the issue, China has also signed up for increasingly tough UN sanctions against North Korea.
China’s fuel exports to North Korea fell last month, along with iron ore imports from the isolated nation, as trade slowed after the latest UN sanctions, but coal shipments resumed after a fivemonth hiatus, customs data showed yesterday.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged Kim to resume military talks and reunions of families split by the 1950-53 Korean War to ease tension.
“Like I’ve said multiple times before, if North Korea stops its reckless choices, the table for talks and negotiations always remains open,” Moon said.
In Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was working behind the scenes to find a political solution and that using sanctions against North Korea was almost exhausted.
During a visit to India, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said diplomatic efforts continued.
Observers say Trump’s fondness for Twitter diplomacy is creating a situation ripe for dangerous misunderstandings as he pursues an increasingly personal row with Kim.