WARNING SHOT
U. S. alerts North Korea of ‘ massive military response’
The Trump administration warned Sunday of a “massive military response” against North Korea, and President Trump threatened to halt trade with China after Pyongyang conducted an alarmingly powerful nuclear test.
The rhetoric heated up after North Korea claimed it tested a miniaturized hydrogen bomb that could be transported on a ballisticmissile. Trump declined to dismiss the possibility of a U. S. attack on North Korea, responding to a reporter’s question by saying only, “We’ll see.”
The president met with his national security team on the expanding crisis. Afterward, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned that any threat to the U. S. or its allies would be met with a “massive military response.”
“We have many military options, and the president wanted to be briefed on
each one of them,” Mattis said outside the WhiteHouse. “We are not looking to the total annihilation” of North Korea.
Reports of the nuclear test, North Korea’s sixth and the first since last September, drew swift condemnation from the international community.
In South Korea, the nation’s military said it conducted a live- fire exercise simulating an attack on North Korea’s nuclear test site to “strongly warn” Pyongyang. The U. N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting at the request of the U. S., Japan, France, Britain and South Korea.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told he was working on a new sanctions package.
Neighboring South Korea estimated the blast had a strength of 100 kilotons.
There was no immediate confirmation outside North Korea that the test involved a hydrogen bomb or that it was small enough to be loaded onto a missile. North Korea has made similar, unsubstantiated claims after previous tests.
The latest test appeared to mark a significant step forward in North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s quest for a nuclear missile capable of striking the USA.
“North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test. Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States. ...,” Trump wrote about Sunday’s test.
He tweeted that North Korea is “a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.”
Then, later: “The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.”
Trump has consistently pressed China to use its considerable economic influence over Pyongyang to halt the North’s nuclear buildup.
China’s Foreign Ministry said it would work with the international community to implement U. N. sanctions.
“Today, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, despite universal opposition from the international community, conducted another nuclear test,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The Chinese government expresses firm opposition to and strong condemnation of the test.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin was in China for an economic summit and discussed the test with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Kremlin said. Putin also spoke by phone with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council.
Putin’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling for a “reasonable and balanced” approach to the crisis. The statement questioned the call for more sanctions, noting that sanctions so far had “not led to any positive outcome.”
Trump’s Twitter wrath also was directed at Seoul: “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!”