By Michelle Nichols, Ben Blanchard and Christine Kim
NEW YORK/SEOUL, Sept 25 (Reuters) – North Korea’s foreign minister said on Monday that President Donald Trump had declared war on North Korea and that Pyongyang reserves the right to take countermeasures, including shooting down U.S. bombers even if they are not in its air space.
Ri Yong Ho said a Twitter message by Trump on Saturday in which the president warned that the minister and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer” if they acted on their threats, amounted to a declaration of war.
“The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country,” Ri told reporters in New York.
“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,” Ri said.
“The question of who won’t be around much longer will be answered then,” Ri said.
On Saturday, U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers escorted by fighters flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea in a show of force after a heated exchange of rhetoric between Trump and Kim over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
The Pentagon said the flight was the farthest north of the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea that any U.S. fighter jet or bomber has flown in the 21st century.
“That operation was conducted in international airspace, over international waters, so we have the right to fly, sail and operate where legally permissible around the globe,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning said on Monday.
North Korea, which has remained technically at war with the United States since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce not a peace treaty, has been working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland and conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test this month.
FEARS OF MISCALCULATION
Pyongyang accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its Asian allies.
However, the recent spike in rhetoric from both sides has fuelled tensions and raised fears of miscalculation by one side or the other that could have massive repercussions.
U.S. Treasury yields fell to session lows after Ri’s comments on Monday.
The Pentagon said the bomber flight indicated the range of military options available to Trump, but U.S. officials have repeatedly stressed that despite the war or words, the administration prefers a negotiated solution to the crisis.
Pentagon spokesman Manning responded to Ri’s warning about shooting down U.S. bombers by saying it would provide the president with options to deal with North Korea if its provocations continued.
The latest round of heavy verbal salvoes began when Trump threatened in his maiden U.N. address last Tuesday to “totally destroy” North Korea, a country of 26 million people, if it threatened the United States or its allies.
In an unprecedented direct statement on Friday, Kim responded by calling Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” whom he would tame with fire.
Kim said North Korea would consider the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history” against the United States and that Trump’s comments had confirmed his nuclear programme was “the correct path”.
Ri told the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday that targeting the U.S. mainland with its rockets was inevitable after “Mr Evil President” Trump called Kim a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.
On Twitter late on Saturday, Trump replied: “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”
On Monday, North Korea, which has pursued its missile and nuclear programs in defiance of international sanctions, said it “bitterly condemned the reckless remarks” of Trump.
CALLS FOR RESTRAINT
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that the only solution to the crisis was a political one.
“Fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
China, North Korea’s neighbour and main ally, which has nevertheless backed U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, called on Monday for all sides in the crisis to show restraint and not “add oil to the flames.”
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang described the situation as highly complex and sensitive. He said it was vitally important everyone strictly, fully and correctly implemented all North Korea related U.N. resolutions, which call for both tighter sanctions, and efforts to resume dialogue.
All sides should “not further irritate each other and add oil to the flames of the tense situation on the peninsula at present”, Lu told a daily news briefing.
Speaking to British Prime Minister Theresa May by telephone, Chinese President Xi Jinping repeated Beijing’s position that the North Korean issue should be resolved peacefully via talks and hoped Britain could play a constructive role in pushing for this, Chinese state media said.
Downing Street said the two leaders agreed there was a particular responsibility for China and Britain, as permanent Security Council members, to help find a diplomatic solution.
Ri warned said on Friday North Korea might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean, in what would be North Korea’s first atmospheric nuclear test. Experts said such a move, while perhaps not imminent, would be proof of North Korea’s ability to successfully deliver a nuclear warhead on a missile.
On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a staunch U.S. ally, said he would dissolve parliament’s lower house on Thursday for a snap election, seeking a mandate to stick to his tough stance towards a volatile North Korea and rebalance the social security system. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols in New York, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Christine Kim in Seoul; additional reporting buy David Brunnstrom, Idrees Ali and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Zhu Zhang in Beijing, Elizabeth Piper in London and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Writing by Philip Wen and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Nick Macfie and Grant McCool)
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