North Korea has warned U.S. President Donald Trump that his continuing threats of military action against the hermit dictatorship are ‘a big mistake’.
In a media statement, Kim Jong-un’s regime also said that if the U.S. keeps pushing for sanctions to ‘strangle North Korea’ it would suffer a ‘bitter defeat’.
The threats from Pyongyang came after Donald Trump warned Kim Jong Un that nuclear weapons ‘are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger.’
Warning: Kim Jong-Un’s state media said that if Donald Trump continues to make threats of military actions and push for further sanctions, the U.S. would suffer ‘bitter defeat’
Kim Jong-Un’s state-run media mouthpiece KCNA said it was ‘the height of shamelessness’ that the U.S. would complain about others having access to nuclear weapons, as they were the first to use such in a military conflict during World War II.
‘The present grave situation once again clearly shows that Trump’s mad remarks of “total destruction” and “annihilation” of the DPRK have resulted in military gambling.
‘If the US imperialists try to alarm the DPRK with nuclear threat and blackmail, it will be a big mistake.
‘The more the U.S. engrossed in its daydream persists in the reckless military threat and moves to strangle the DPRK, the bitterer defeat it will suffer.’
The speech by President Trump in Seoul, South Korea saw him use some of his harshest language yet – without resorting to the petty insults he has been using on Twitter, which includes calling Kim Jong-Un ‘Little Rocket Man’.
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President Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, during their five-country trip through Asia
He called on countries around the world to isolate Pyongyang by denying it ‘any form of support, supply or acceptance’ as he accused the regime of human rights violations and treating its population as slaves.
‘Do not underestimate us and do not try us,’ Trump told North Korea as he wrapped up a visit to South Korea with a speech to the National Assembly before heading to Beijing, where he is making his first official visit.
Trump painted a dystopian picture of North Korea, saying its people were suffering in ‘gulags’ ready to bribe their way into overseas ‘slave’ labour to avoid having to stay in the country. He offered no evidence to support those accusations.
He went mostly on the attack, but did promise a ‘path to a much better future’ for North Korea if it stopped developing ballistic missiles and agreed to ‘complete, verifiable and total denuclearization’ – something Pyongyang has vowed never to do.
Kim Jong-Un’s state-run media mouthpiece KCNA said it was ‘the height of shamelessness’ that the U.S. would complain about others having access to nuclear weapons
Speaking directly to Kim Jong-Un, he said: ‘The weapons that you are acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face.’
However Trump, whose strategy has stressed sanctions and military pressure instead of diplomacy, did not spell out any new approach to force North Korea to abandon its missile and weapons programs.
Having arrived in Beijing today, Trump is set to ask China to abide by United Nations resolutions and cut financial links with North Korea, a senior White House official said on the plane from Seoul.
Trump believes any talks with North Korea would require reducing threats, ending provocations and movement toward denuclearization, and that no deal can be achieved without denuclearization, the official added.