An editorial in North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on August 20 sharply attacked the annual U.S.-South Korean Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercise with South Korea. set to start on August 21. The North Koreans warned that the exercise will be “adding fuel to the fire” of already heightened tensions between Pyongyang and the United States and its allies.

The Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise involves 50,000 South Korean troops alongside 17,500 U.S. troops this year. The exercise was initiated in 1976 and is conducted annually during August or September. North Korea routinely denounces the exercise held each year, describing it as preparation for war.

The North Korean message in Rodong Sinmun used ominous language, “The Trump group's declaration of the reckless nuclear war exercises against the DPRK ... is a reckless behavior driving the situation into the uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war,” the editorial stated using the acronym for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

The editorial described North Korea as the “strongest possessor” of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland from anywhere.

“The Korean People’s Army is keeping a high alert, fully ready to contain the enemies. It will take resolute steps the moment even a slight sign of the preventive war is spotted,” it read. However, the editorial did not explain what it meant by “preventive war.”

It went on to state that “no one can guarantee that the exercise won’t evolve into actual fighting.

“If the United States is lost in a fantasy that war on the peninsula is at somebody else’s door far away from them across the Pacific, it is far more mistaken than ever.”

The strong rhetoric unleashed by the North Koreans was merely an extension of what has transpired in recent months, as the West has responded to North Korea's continued testing of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un escalated his rhetoric after the UN Security Council recently levied sanctions against his regime on August 5 as a punitive measure in response to Pyonyang’s two ballistic missile tests in July.

President Trump warned on August 8: “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Trump explained the reason for his strong language by stating that Kim Jong-un has been “very threatening beyond a normal statement.”

Following Trump’s statement, a spokesman for the Korean People’s Army (KPA) told KCNA (the Korean Central News Agency) that it would carry out a pre-emptive operation if there were signs of U.S. provocation and threatened to fire a long-range missile against the U.S. base in Guam.

During a stopover in Guam on August 9, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Americans to remain calm, saying he doesn’t believe there is “any imminent threat” from North Korea. Tillerson also defended Trump’s strongly worded comments, stating, “What the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un can understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language. I think the president just wanted to be clear to the North Korean regime on the U.S.’s unquestionable ability to defend itself, will defend itself and its allies.”

We posed a question in an article on August 9 that focused on the war of words between North Korea and the United States: “Considering that North Korea is so technologically backward that it has difficulty in maintaining its electrical grid, can anyone believe that it poses any realistic military threat against the world’ greatest superpower?”

In that article, we noted that the usual explanation is that North Korea is a “rogue” state whose leader’s bravado exceeds his common sense. However, a better explanation was provided by The New American's foreign correspondent, Alex Newman, in the cover article (“North Korea: Globalist Pawn?”) for the August 21 print edition of this magazine:

Far from being “alone,” the communist regime in North Korea has had friends in high places from the beginning, and still does today. First and foremost, the regime is a puppet and close ally of the powerful communist dictatorship enslaving mainland China’s 1.3 billion people — a regime that is increasingly projecting its power globally.

Newman went on to write: “In summary, the regime in North Korea is best understood as a puppet of the regime in Beijing.”

The usual responses to North Korea’s sabre rattling and testing of ballistic missiles are both military and economic. We display a massive show of military might, such as the current exercise with South Korea and moving a third carrier strike force to the Western Pacific, supposedly to show the North Koreans that we mean business. The other response was exhibited by UN Ambassador Nikki Haley’s actions at the UN to campaign for greater UN sanctions against the Pyongyang regime. However, such an action merely plays into the hands of the globalists who seek to use manufactured crises such as the ongoing tensions between Pyongyang and Washington to empower the UN.

As Newman noted in his article:

So while the facts do not suggest North Korea is harmless — far from it — they do suggest that expecting to use the UN, Beijing, or both to somehow “deal” with the threat of North Korea is an absurd proposition at best. Indeed, as the evidence shows, the UN and Beijing are two of the key powers responsible for creating the North Korea threat in the first place. Instead, simply pulling the US government out of the UN and defunding it, along with stopping the subsidies to Kim’s murderous regime, would do more damage to Pyongyang than anything attempted thus far.

We recommend reading the entire article to gain a greater understanding of the powers working behind the scenes to prop up the North Korean regime and use it as part of their scheme to build a global empire under the auspices of the UN.

China Says It Will Remain Neutral if U.S. Retaliates Against North Korean First Strike

What Does the U.S.-North Korean War of Words Really Mean?

Official Says North Korean Missile Has “.00001 Percent Chance” of Getting Through Defenses

North Korea Tests Ballistic Missile Capable of Reaching U.S. Base on Guam

In Test That Will Send Message to N. Korea, U.S. Successfully Intercepts ICBM

Successful Test of THAAD Anti-missile System Offers Hope for U.S. Defense

Aircraft Carriers Gather Off N. Korea; Pyongyang Tests Missile Able to Hit Ships

Recently Tested North Korean ICBM Said to be in Range of Most of U.S. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What would a war look like?

North Korea's foreign minister has accused US President Donald Trump of declaring war on his country and said Pyongyang had the right to shoot down US bombers.

Ri Yong-ho said this could apply even if the warplanes were not in North Korea's airspace.

The White House dismissed the statement as "absurd". The Pentagon warned Pyongyang to stop provocations.

A UN spokesman said fiery talk could lead to fatal misunderstandings.

Mr Ri's comments were a response to Mr Trump's tweet that the North Korean leadership would not "be around much longer" if they continued their rhetoric.

"The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country," Mr Ri told reporters as he was leaving New York, where he had addressed the UN General Assembly on Saturday.

"Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make counter-measures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country."

Mr Trump's tweet followed Mr Ri's fiery speech to the UN on Saturday, when he described the US president as a "mentally deranged person full of megalomania" on a "suicide mission".

Referring to Mr Trump's post, North Korea's minister said "the question of who won't be around much longer" would be answered by his country.

Mr Ri's remarks - not the first time that North Korea has used the phrase "a declaration of war" in relation to the US - are the latest in an increasingly angry war of words between the two countries.

His statement came two days after US warplanes flew close to North Korea's coast in a show of force.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sarah Sanders: Frankly the suggestion is absurd

Pentagon spokesman Col Robert Manning reacted by saying: "If North Korea does not stop their provocative actions, you know, we will make sure that we provide options to the president to deal with North Korea."

"We want things to calm down," China's ambassador to the UN, Liu Jieyi, told Reuters. "It's getting too dangerous and it's in nobody's interest."

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary General António Guterres, said: "Fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings."

"The only solution for this is a political solution," he added.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ri Yong-ho says Donald Trump "declared a war on our country"

Despite weeks of tension, experts have played down the risk of direct conflict between the two.

North Korea has continued to carry out nuclear and ballistic missile tests in recent weeks, in defiance of successive rounds of UN sanctions.

The country's leaders say nuclear capabilities are its only deterrent against an outside world seeking to destroy it.

After the North's latest and most powerful nuclear test earlier this month, the UN Security Council approved new sanctions on the country.

Actions not words

By Jonathan Marcus, BBC News diplomatic correspondent

The rhetoric on both sides may have got out of hand already but the real question is what practical consequences might ensue from the war of words between Washington and Pyongyang?

It should be remembered that the Korean peninsula is not at peace - the Korean conflict of the 1950s was only brought to a halt by an armistice, not a peace treaty.

But it is actions that are likely to provoke renewed fighting, not just words.

The latest North Korean threat to shoot down US warplanes comes in the wake of a recent US patrol that took its B1-B Lancer bombers and their accompanying F-15 fighter escorts over waters to the east of North Korea - the furthest north US warplanes have flown for several months, albeit still outside Pyongyang's airspace.

The US believes it has every right to do this but if one day Pyongyang judges that these aircraft are on an offensive mission - what then? </s> Tuesday, May 2, 2017 at 3:18 am |

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea accused the United States on Tuesday of pushing the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war after a pair of strategic U.S. bombers flew training drills with the South Korean and Japanese air forces in another show of strength.

The two supersonic B-1B Lancer bombers were deployed amid rising tensions over North Korea’s dogged pursuit of its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of United Nations sanctions and pressure from the United States.

The flight of the two bombers on Monday came as U.S. President Donald Trump said he was open to meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the right circumstances, and as his CIA director landed in South Korea for talks.

South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a press briefing in Seoul that Monday’s joint drill was conducted to deter provocations by the North and to test readiness against another potential nuclear test.

The U.S. Air Force said in a statement that the bombers had flown from Guam to conduct training exercises with the South Korean and Japanese air forces.

North Korea said the bombers conducted “a nuclear bomb-dropping drill against major objects” in its territory at a time when Trump and “other U.S. warmongers are crying out for making a preemptive nuclear strike” on the North.

“The reckless military provocation is pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula closer to the brink of nuclear war,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said on Tuesday.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been high for weeks, driven by concerns that the North might conduct its sixth nuclear test in defiance of pressure from the United States and Pyongyang’s sole major ally, China.

China’s Global Times, a state-backed tabloid that does not necessarily reflect national policy, said in an editorial late on Monday the United States should not rely on China alone to pressure Pyongyang into giving up its nuclear ambitions.

April could prove a “turning point,” the paper said, but “Washington … must also continue to exert its own efforts on the issue.”

It was widely feared that North Korea could conduct its sixth nuclear test on or around April 15 to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the North’s founding leader, Kim Il Sung, or on April 25 to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the foundation of its Korean People’s Army.

The North has conducted such tests or missile launches to mark significant events in the past.

Instead, North Korea conducted an annual military parade, featuring a display of missiles, on April 15 and then a large, live-fire artillery drill 10 days later.

South Korea’s acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn called for stronger vigilance because of continuing provocation by Seoul’s poor and isolated neighbor, and for countries such as China to increase pressure on the North.

“I am asking foreign and security ministries to further strengthen military readiness in order for North Korea not to miscalculate,” Hwang told a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Soon after Hwang spoke, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Seoul said the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, was in South Korea for meetings with the embassy and U.S. forces in Korea.

The Yonhap news agency, citing unidentified government sources, had earlier reported that Pompeo met South Korea’s intelligence chief and a senior presidential official. South Korean officials would not confirm the report.

Trump said on Monday he would be “honored” to meet North Korea’s young leader.

“If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it,” Trump told Bloomberg News in comments that drew criticism in Washington.

Trump did not say what conditions would be needed for such a meeting to occur or when it could happen. The White House said later North Korea would need to meet many conditions before it could be contemplated.

“Clearly conditions are not there right now,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

Trump warned in an interview with Reuters last Thursday that a “major, major conflict” with North Korea was possible, while China said last week the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate or slip out of control.

In a show of force, the United States has already sent an aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to waters off the Korean peninsula to conduct drills with South Korea and Japan.

The U.S. military’s THAAD antimissile defense system has reached initial operational capacity in South Korea, U.S. officials told Reuters, although they cautioned that it would not be fully operational for some months.

North Korea test-launched a missile on Saturday that appeared to have failed within minutes, its fourth successive failed launch since March. It has conducted two nuclear tests and a series of missile-related activities at an unprecedented pace since the beginning of last year.

The North is technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, and regularly threatens to destroy the United States, Japan and South Korea. </s> North Korea denounced Washington's deployment of a naval strike group to the Korean peninsula Tuesday, warning it was ready for "war" in a further escalation of tensions.

The Carl Vinson strike group cancelled a planned trip to Australia this weekend to head to the region, in a show of force as Washington signalled it may act to shut down Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities.

"This goes to prove that the US reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase," a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry said according to state news agency KCNA.

"The DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US," he said, using the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

President Donald Trump, fresh from ordering a missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea, has asked his advisors for a range of options to rein in Pyongyang, a top US official said Sunday.

Trump has previously threatened unilateral action against Pyongyang if China -- the North's sole major ally -- fails to help curb its neighbour's nuclear weapons ambitions.

But Pyongyang's response suggested the reclusive state is determined to continue on its current path, despite repeated rounds of United Nations sanctions.

"We will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms," the foreign ministry spokesman said.

"We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions."

Speculation over an imminent nuclear test is brewing as the North marks anniversaries including the 105th birthday of its founding leader on Saturday -- sometimes celebrated with a demonstration of military might.

Pyongyang is on a quest to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.

Satellite imagery analysis suggests it could be preparing for a sixth, with intelligence officials warning it could be less than two years away from achieving the ability to strike the continental United States.

Seoul and Washington are also currently conducting joint military drills, an annual exercise which is seen by the North as a preparation for invasion.

South Korea's top nuclear envoy said Monday after talks with his Chinese counterpart that the two nations had agreed to "strong" new measures to punish Pyongyang if it carried out another nuclear test.

The talks came shortly after Trump hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit at which he pressed Beijing to do more to curb the North's nuclear ambitions.

"(We) are prepared to chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us," US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the summit.

US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Sunday criticised North Korea as a rogue nation engaged in provocative behaviour and said denuclearisation of the peninsula "must happen".

"The president has asked them to be prepared to give us a full range of options to remove that threat," he said on Fox News, apparently referring to Trump's advisers.

South Korea's Unification Minister Hong Yong-Pyo said Monday that the repercussions of a potential military response were worrying.

"Pre-emptive strikes may be aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear problems, but for us, it is also related to defending the safety of the public," he told reporters.

While a US unilateral strike on North Korea from a shorter range might be more effective, it would likely endanger many civilians in the South and risk triggering a broader military conflict, experts warn. </s> NORTH Korea is continuing to talk tough with the US, this time promising its “grim action” is going to bring “catastrophic consequences” to the world.

Officials in Pyongyang have provided a statement to CNN on the build-up of US naval forces near the Korean Peninsula in an attempt to justify the dictatorship’s “self-defensive and pre-emptive strike capabilities with the nuclear force at the core”.

American forces announced on Sunday that the USS Carl Vinson, loaded with fighter jets, had been pulled from its planned military exercises in Australia and ordered towards the Korean Peninsula. Three guided-missile destroyers and cruisers joined the armada, which left from Singapore on Saturday.

Pyongyang has described the situation as “grim”, according to the CNN statement.

“We will make the US fully accountable for the catastrophic consequences that may be brought about by its highhanded and outrageous acts,” it read.

According to military and intelligence sources who spoke to The New York Times, the US’s show of force was timed around the most important day on the North Korean calendar, the anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, who founded the nation and is the late grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea is less than impressed. In an earlier response to America’s naval movements, the regime’s foreign ministry said the “reckless moves for invading the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] have reached a serious phase”. It also issued the warning that it was ready for war, AFP reported.

“The DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the US,” North Korea’s state-run news agency said.

The rogue state has a history of launching missiles and taking provocative actions on Kim Il-sung’s birthday, and satellite imagery suggests Kim Jong-un might take the opportunity to flex his military muscles on April 15.

There is speculation that Pyongyang will mark the occasion with by testing missiles or detonating a nuclear device.

South Korea’s top nuclear envoy Kim Hong-Kyun has backed up the theory, warning that the North may stage a “strategic provocation” to mark the date.

The US has notified Australia that it is prepared to shoot down any missiles launched on Saturday and the Pine Gap military intelligence base in central Australia is on standby, The Daily Telegraph reports.

US President Donald Trump is emboldened after his widely endorsed air strike against a Syria last week, where he ordered 59 Tomahawk missiles to bomb an air base in response to a chemical weapons attack in the country that killed more than 80 civilians, including children.

However, the US strike against Syria was unlikely to deter Kim Jong-un from developing his nuclear weapons program, former Pentagon official Daniel Goure told US news channel CNBC.

“If you are the North Korean leader, you say, ‘Wow, I could be next’,” said Mr Goure, who is now a spokesman for defence think tank the Lexington Institute.

“For them, I think the answer is straight forward — you can’t trust the Americans.”

He said the situation on the Korean Peninsula was “hugely near the tipping point”.

“It’s quite possible it could be a very intense, bloody war,” he said.

Meanwhile, another expert has warned that any US strike against the isolated nation could trigger a much larger military conflict that draws in China or Japan.

“The upside is that the United States may be able to denuclearise the North by force … but it will come at a huge cost to the region and to the United States,” Asan Institute for Policy Studies analyst James Kim told AFP.

North Korea has denounced the attack on Syria as an act of “intolerable aggression”.

Meanwhile, China and South Korea have agreed that there should be “strong” new measures to punish the North if it pushes ahead with nuclear weapons testing.

Mr Trump is yet to make any public comments about the movement of the US warships, but his Syrian missile strike is being interpreted as a warning to North Korea.

The President’s chief national security adviser, HR McMaster, said the Korean strategy was aimed to give the President a “full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and to our allies and partners in the region”.

General McMaster said North Korea was “a rogue regime that is now a nuclear capable regime”.

“What must happen is the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” General McMaster told Fox News Sunday.

“North Korea has been engaged in a pattern of provocative behaviour.”

US Pacific Command spokesman Dave Benham told AFP the diversion of the warships was a “prudent” move due to North Korea’s “reckless, irresponsible and destabilising program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability”.

Pyongyang is on a mission to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland. </s> http://undergroundworldnews.com

 In his address to soldiers, Choe Ryong Hae, a close aide to Kim Jong Un, addressed the packed square with a characteristically bellicose warning to the United States. “If the United States wages reckless provocation against us, our revolutionary power will instantly counter with annihilating strike, and we will respond to full-out war with full-out war and to nuclear war with our style of nuclear strike warfare,” he said.

Earlier, state news agency KCNA said the Trump administration’s “serious military hysteria” had reached a “dangerous phase which can no longer be overlooked”. The United States has warned that a policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea is over. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence travels to South Korea on Sunday on a long-planned 10-day trip to Asia.

China’s Global Times newspaper also rattled some cages when it said North Korea must have felt the shockwave from the 11-ton “mother of all bombs” dropped by U.S. forces on Islamic State-linked fighters in Afghanistan on Thursday. “It would be nice if the bomb could frighten Pyongyang, but its actual impact may just be the opposite.”

North Korea on Friday denounced the United States for bringing “huge nuclear strategic assets” to the region as the USS Carl Vinson strike group with a flag-ship nuclear-powered aircraft carrier steamed closer. </s> North Korea is prepared to preempt any "reckless" military intervention from the United States under the "more vicious and more aggressive" President Trump, Vice Minister Han Song Ryol told The Associated Press in an interview published Friday.

"We've got a powerful nuclear deterrent already in our hands, and we certainly will not keep our arms crossed in the face of a U.S. preemptive strike," Han said. "Whatever comes from the U.S., we will cope with it. We are fully prepared to handle it."

His comments follow a Thursday report from NBC News citing unnamed senior intelligence officials who said the U.S. is prepared to launch a conventional attack, including American boots on the ground, on North Korea if the isolated nation conducts another nuclear weapons test. Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin, however, said "multiple senior defense officials" denied NBC's report, calling it "wildly wrong."

Such a test is expected as soon as this Saturday, April 15, when Pyonyang celebrates the birthday of Kim Il Sung, the founding president of the regime. Kim Jong Un, the founder's grandson and the current leader, has hinted a major new weapons test may be scheduled for that day. Last weekend, a U.S. Navy carrier strike group changed course and moved toward North Korea in what was understood to be a show of force against Pyongyang. Bonnie Kristian </s> Kim Jong-un has accused the US of pushing the Korean Peninsula to the brink of nuclear war after a pair of American bombers carried out training drills in the region.

The supersonic B-1B Lancers were deployed in a joint training exercise with the Japanese air forces amid heightened tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

North Korea said the bombers conducted 'a nuclear bomb dropping drill against major objects' in its territory at a time when US President Donald Trump and 'other U.S. warmongers are crying out for making a preemptive nuclear strike'.

'The reckless military provocation is pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula closer to the brink of nuclear war,' the North's official KCNA news agency said this morning.

The deployment comes amid rising tensions over North Korea's dogged pursuit of its nuclear and missile programmes in defiance of United Nations sanctions and pressure from the US.

The flight of the two bombers on Monday came as Trump said he was open to meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in the appropriate circumstances, even though Pyongyang suggested it would continue with its nuclear tests.

South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a briefing in Seoul that Monday's joint drill was conducted to deter provocations by the North and to test readiness against another potential nuclear test.

The U.S. air force said in a statement the bombers had flown from Guam to conduct training exercises with the South Korean and Japanese air forces.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been high for weeks, driven by concerns that the North might conduct its sixth nuclear test in defiance of pressure from the United States and Pyongyang's sole major ally, China.

China's Global Times, a state-backed tabloid that does not necessarily reflect national policy, said in an editorial late on Monday the United States should not rely on China alone to pressure Pyongyang into giving up its nuclear ambitions.

April could prove a 'turning point', the paper said, but 'Washington ... must also continue to exert its own efforts on the issue'.

It was widely feared North Korea could conduct its sixth nuclear test on or around April 15 to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the North's founding leader, Kim Il Sung, or on April 25 to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the foundation of its Korean People's Army.

The North has conducted such tests or missile launches to mark significant events in the past.

Instead, North Korea conducted an annual military parade, featuring a display of missiles, on April 15 and then a large, live-fire artillery drill 10 days later.

South Korea's acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn called for stronger vigilance because of continuing provocation by Seoul's poor and isolated neighbour.

'I am asking foreign and security ministries to further strengthen military readiness in order for North Korea not to miscalculate ... and drive the Korea-U.S. alliance and cooperation from neighbouring countries such as China to put pressure on the North,' Hwang told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Trump said on Monday he would be 'honoured' to meet the North's young leader.

'If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honoured to do it,' Trump told Bloomberg News in comments that drew criticism in Washington.

Trump did not say what conditions would be needed for such a meeting to occur or when it could happen. The White House said later North Korea would need to meet many conditions before it could be contemplated.

'Clearly conditions are not there right now,' White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

'I don't see this happening anytime soon.'

Trump warned in an interview with Reuters on Thursday that a 'major, major conflict' with North Korea was possible, while China said last week the situation on the Korean peninsula could escalate or slip out of control.

In a show of force, the United States has already sent an aircraft carrier strike group, led by the USS Carl Vinson, to waters off the Korean peninsula to conduct drills with South Korea and Japan.

The U.S. military's THAAD anti-missile defence system has reached initial operational capacity in South Korea, U.S. officials told Reuters, although they cautioned that it would not be fully operational for some months.

North Korea test-launched a missile on Saturday that appeared to have failed within minutes, its fourth successive failed launch since March. It has conducted two nuclear tests and a series of missile-related activities at an unprecedented pace since the beginning of last year.

The North is technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty, and regularly threatens to destroy the United States, Japan and South Korea. </s> North Korea’s foreign minister escalated tensions with the United States on Monday, saying that President Trump’s threatening comments about the country and its leadership were “a declaration of war” and that North Korea had the right to shoot down American warplanes, even if they are not in North Korean air space.

“The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country,” the foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, told reporters as he was leaving the United Nations after a week of General Assembly meetings 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.”

Referring to Mr. Trump’s assertion that the North Korean leadership may not “be around much longer,” Mr. Ri said that the question of “who would be around much longer will be answered” by North Korea.

Mr. Ri, speaking two days after American warplanes flew close to the North’s coast, added that “in light of the declaration of war by Trump, all options will be on the operations table of the supreme leadership” of North Korea.

North Korea had already deemed Mr. Trump’s threat at the United Nations — to “totally destroy” North Korea if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies — a declaration of war.
North Korea announces its readiness to declare war on the United States after the country previously stated that they felt threatened as U.S. military forces approach the Korean Peninsula.