President on Kim Jong-un: ‘He won’t be around much longer’
TENSIONS between the US and North Korea escalated further yesterday as Donald Trump warned Kim Jong-un he “won’t be around much longer”.
The president’s latest provocative Twitter comment came as a major antiamerica rally was held in Pyongyang.
Late on Saturday night, Mr Trump wrote: “Just heard the foreign minister of North Korea speak at the UN. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer.”
Ri Yong-ho, North Korea’s foreign minister, told the United Nations Gen- eral Assembly that targeting the US mainland with rockets was inevitable after “Mr Evil President” Trump called Pyongyang’s leader a “Rocket Man” on a suicide mission.
The leaders have traded increasingly threatening and personal insults recently as Pyongyang races towards its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the US. Analysts say the escalation in rhetoric is increasing the risk of a miscalculation by one side or the other that could have massive repercussions.
North Korea’s state-run television aired a video on Sunday showing tens of thousands of people attending the anti-america rally. KCNA, the North’s official news agency, said more than 100,000 people gathered for the rally on Saturday and delivered speeches supporting comments made by Mr Kim earlier in the week.
“We are waiting for the right time to have a final battle with the US, the evil empire, and to remove the US from the world,” KCNA quoted Ri Il-bae, a commanding officer of the Red Guards, as saying. “Once respected supreme commander Kim Jong-un gives an order, we will annihilate the group of aggressors.”
In a statement on Friday, Mr Kim described Mr Trump as a “mentally deranged dotard” whom he would tame with fire. He said North Korea would consider the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history” against the US, and that Mr Trump’s comments had confirmed North Korea’s nuclear programme was “the correct path”.
Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, yesterday said that Mr Trump was ready to defend the US from North Korean threats, both economically and militarily: “The president has said all the options are on the table. The president has lots of alternatives that have been presented to him and he will make decisions at the time.