Rhetoric aimed at N. Korea escalates
will truly regret it and he will regretit fast,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his New Jersey golfresort.
Asked if the U.S. was going to war, he said cryptically, “I think you know the answer to that.”
The compounding threats came in a week in which longstanding tensions between the countries risked abruptly boiling over.
New United Nations sanctions condemning North Korea’s rapidly developing nuclear program drew fresh ire and threats from Pyongyang. Mr. Trump responded by vowing to rain down “fire and fury” if challenged. North Korea then threatened to lob missiles near Guam, a tiny U.S. territory some 2,000 miles from Pyongyang.
Tough talk aside, discussions between senior U.S. and North Korean diplomats continue through a back channel previously used to negotiate the return of Americans held in North Korea. The talks have expanded to address the deterioration of the relationship. They haven’t quelled tensions, but could be a foundation for more diplomacy, according to U.S. officials and others briefed on the process.
They weren’t authorized to discuss the confidential exchanges and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Mr. Trump on Friday sought to project military strength, only dialing back slightly throughout the day.
He began with a morning tweet: “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”
He later retweeted a posting from U.S. Pacific Command that showed B-1B Lancer bomber planes on Guam that “stand ready to fulfill USFK’s #FightTonight mission if called upon to do so.” Such declarations, however, don’t indicate a new, moreaggressive posture.
“Fight tonight” has long been the motto of U.S. forces in South Korea to show they’re always ready for combat on the Korean Peninsula.
Mr. Trump declined to explain the boast of military readiness when asked by reporters later in the day at an event highlighting workforce development programs.
He also brushed away calls for caution from world leaders, including Germany’s Angela Merkel.
“I don’t see a military solution and I don’t think it’s called for,” Ms. Merkel said Friday, declining to say whether Germany would stand with the U.S. in a military conflict with North Korea.She called on the U.N. SecurityCouncil to continue to address the crisis.
“I think escalating the rhetoric is the wrong answer,” Ms. Merkel added.
“Let her speak for Germany,” Mr. Trump said, when he was asked about the comment. “Perhaps she is referring to Germany. She’s certainly not referring to the United States, that I can tell you.”
By evening, after a briefing with top advisers and standing next to his secretary of state and U.N. ambassador, Mr. Trump suggested diplomacy could yet prevail.
“Hopefully it’ll all work out,” Mr. Trump said. “Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump.”
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Moscow was “very alarmed” by talk of preemptive military action by the United States. “Unfortunately, the rhetoric in Washington and Pyongyang is now starting to go over the top,” Mr. Lavrov said. “We still hope and believe that common sense will prevail.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday denied reports on state-controlled media that air defense units in the RussianFar East had been placed on high alert. Russia shares a short border with North Korea, near Vladivostok, a Pacificport city.
Speaking at a youth forum east of Moscow, Mr. Lavrov said Moscow was “very worried” by fiery declarations in Washington and Pyongyang.
“Talk of the need to carry out a pre-emptive strike at North Korea, Pyongyang’s talk of the need to strike at Guam island at the U.S. military base, this has been continual, and we are very worried by this,” Mr. Lavrov said.