North Korea has accused Donald Trump of ‘lighting the wick of war’ as the hermit nation issued a fresh threat to the United States.
Kim Jong-un’s foreign minister Ri Yong-ho, seemingly angry at Trump’s comments at the United Nations summit last month, warned the US it would ‘settle the final score’.
Ri said: ‘With his bellicose and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, you can say, has lit the wick of a war against us,’ according to Russian state website TASS.
‘We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words.’
North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, centre, speaking through an interpreter, left, talks outside the UN Plaza Hotel in New Yorkon September 25
US President Donald Trump listens to members of the media on the South Lawn after returning to the White House in Washington DC
Kim Jong-un’s (pictured) foreign minister Ri Yong-ho, seemingly angry at Trump’s comments at the United Nations summit last month, warned the US it would ‘settle the final score’
Tensions between North Korea and the United States have risen in recent weeks over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.
North Korea has test-fired several missiles and conducted what it said was a test explosion of a hydrogen bomb as it advances toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.
Ri has previously called Trump ‘President Evil’ and his comments are likely to fuel an escalating war of words between the U.S President and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
‘We have almost reached the last point on the journey towards our final goal – to achieve a real balance of power with the United States,” he said.
‘Our principal position is that we will never agree to any talks in which our nuclear weapons will be the subject of negotiations.’
Ri is the man who last month made the shock claim that President Donald Trump had declared war on North Korea.
The foreign minister insisted all options were on the table for Pyongyang and that his nation reserved the right to shoot down US planes even if they are not in Korea’s air space.
The official, talking to reporters in New York on September 25, said: ‘The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country.
‘Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country.’
The remarks from the rogue state’s Foreign Minister was in reaction to comments made by the President of the US in which he questioned how long the North Korean leadership would be in power.
‘Trump claimed our leadership would not be around much longer,’ Ri said, threatening to shoot down American aircraft from international airspace.
‘The question of who will be around much longer will be answered then,’ he added.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho gets into a car before heading to the US last month
Ri, who made the comments before leaving New York where he had attended last week’s UN General Assembly, made the statement then returned from his car to the press microphones to add: ‘In light of the declaration of war by Trump, all options will be on the operations table of the supreme leadership of the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea).’
His words echoed warnings from the Trump administration that all options were on the table in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and its threats to have a weapon capable of reaching the continental United States.
And last month the Pentagon gave reassurance to Donald Trump to say he will be provided with options to deal with Pyongyang if North Korea does not stop with its ‘provocative actions’.
A couple of days before making the statements in New York, Ri told the UN General Assembly that targeting the US mainland with its rockets was inevitable after ‘Mr Evil President’ Trump called Pyongyang’s leader a ‘rocket man’ on a suicide mission.
Trump tweeted: ‘Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at UN.
‘If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer.’
North Korea has pursued its missile and nuclear programs in defiance of international condemnation and sanctions.