{"id":98339,"date":"2017-04-15T03:48:11","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T07:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=98339"},"modified":"2017-04-15T03:48:11","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T07:48:11","slug":"n-korean-official-ready-for-war-if-trump-wants-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/04\/15\/n-korean-official-ready-for-war-if-trump-wants-it\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korean official: Ready for war if Trump wants it"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Donald Trump’s tweets are adding fuel to a \u201cvicious cycle\u201d of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea’s vice foreign minister told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Friday. The official added that if the U.S. shows any sign of \u201creckless\u201d military aggression, Pyongyang is ready to launch a pre-emptive strike of its own. (Photo: David Stanley\/Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PYONGYANG, Korea, Democratic People’s Republic Of \u2014 President Donald Trump’s tweets are adding fuel to a \u201cvicious cycle\u201d of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea’s vice foreign minister told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Friday. The official added that if the U.S. shows any sign of \u201creckless\u201d military aggression, Pyongyang is ready to launch a pre-emptive strike of its own.<\/p>\n

Vice Minister Han Song Ryol said Pyongyang has determined the Trump administration is \u201cmore vicious and more aggressive\u201d than that of Barack Obama. He added that North Korea will keep building up its nuclear arsenal in \u201cquality and quantity\u201d and said Pyongyang is ready to go to war if that’s what Trump wants.<\/p>\n

Tensions between Pyongyang and Washington go back to President Harry Truman and the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. But the heat has been rising rapidly since Trump took office in January.<\/p>\n

This year’s joint war games between the U.S. and South Korean militaries are the biggest so far. The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier has been diverted back to the waters off Korea after heading for Australia, and U.S. satellite imagery suggests the North could conduct another underground nuclear test at any time. Pyongyang recently tested a ballistic missile and claims it is close to perfecting an intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear warhead that could attack the U.S. mainland.<\/p>\n

Many experts believe that at its current pace of testing, North Korea could reach that potentially game-changing milestone within a few years \u2014 under Trump’s watch as president. Despite reports that Washington is considering military action if the North goes ahead with another nuclear test, Han did not rule out the possibility of a test in the near future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is something that our headquarters decides,\u201d he said during the 40-minute interview in Pyongyang, which is now gearing up for a major holiday \u2014 and possibly a big military parade \u2014 on Saturday. \u201cAt a time and at a place where the headquarters deems necessary, it will take place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The North conducted two such tests last year alone. The first was of what it claims to have been a hydrogen bomb and the second was its most powerful ever. Expectations are high the North may put its newest missiles on display during Saturday’s parade.<\/p>\n

The annual U.S.-South Korea military exercises have consistently infuriated the North, which views them as rehearsals for an invasion. Washington and Seoul deny that, but reports that exercises have included \u201cdecapitation strikes\u201d aimed at the North’s leadership have fanned Pyongyang’s anger.<\/p>\n

Han said Trump’s tweets have also added fuel to the flames.<\/p>\n

Trump posted a tweet Tuesday in which he said the North is \u201clooking for trouble\u201d and reiterated his call for more pressure from Beijing, North Korea’s economic lifeline, to clamp down on trade and strengthen its enforcement of U.N. sanctions to persuade Pyongyang to denuclearize.<\/p>\n

Trump has threatened that if Beijing isn’t willing to do more to squeeze the North, the U.S. might take the matter into its own hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump is always making provocations with his aggressive words,\u201d Han said. \u201cIt’s not the DPRK but the U.S. and Trump that makes trouble.\u201d North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe will go to war if they choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

A U.S. State Department official said later Friday the U.S. was aligning \u201call elements of national power\u201d to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs.<\/p>\n

The official, who wasn’t authorized to be quoted by name and demanded anonymity, lamented Pyongyang’s \u201cfar too common and far too dangerous\u201d provocations, and said Washington would work with international partners to cut the North’s government off \u201cfrom the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. seeks nothing more than a \u201cstable and economically prosperous Korean peninsula,\u201d not military conflict, the official said. But the U.S. will respond to North Korea’s threats accordingly and won’t engage Pyongyang until it \u201cchooses a more peaceful way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Han said U.S. sanctions efforts are misguided and cited the opening ceremony of a sprawling new high-rise residential area in Pyongyang on Thursday as evidence that sanctions have failed to ruin the country’s economy. Leader Kim Jong Un presided over the ceremony before about 100,000 residents and a large contingent of foreign journalists who have been allowed in to cover the holiday.<\/p>\n

Han dismissed the suggestion Trump made last year during his presidential campaign that he was willing to meet Kim Jong Un, possibly over hamburgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was nothing more than lip service during the campaign to make himself more popular,\u201d Han said. \u201cNow we are comparing Trump’s policy toward the DPRK with the former administration’s and we have concluded that it’s becoming more vicious and more aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Han said North Korea changed its military strategy two years ago, when the reports of \u201cdecapitation strike\u201d training began to really get attention, to stress pre-emptive actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’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. pre-emptive strike,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever comes from the U.S., we will cope with it. We are fully prepared to handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much such comments are bluster, or how realistic they are, is hard to gauge.<\/p>\n

Also on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said all sides must stop provoking and threatening and start taking a flexible approach to resuming dialogue. He said China is willing to support any such effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce a war really happens, the result will be nothing but multiple-loss. No one can become a winner,\u201d Wang said. \u201cNo matter who it is, if it wants to make war or trouble on the Korean Peninsula, it must take the historical responsibility and pay the due price.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Han’s remarks on the North’s readiness to conduct a nuclear test and even go to war reveal the \u201ctrue colours of North Korea’s government that is bellicose and a breaker of regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ministry issued a statement saying North Korea will face strong punishment it will find hard to withstand if it makes a significant provocation, such as another nuclear test or an ICBM launch.<\/p>\n

Military experts generally agree a shooting war with North Korea would likely be far more costly than something along the lines of the recent targeted strike Trump ordered against a Syrian air base believed to be linked to a chemical weapons attack by the regime of Bashar Assad. That attack alarmed the North and was condemned as \u201cunpardonable\u201d by Pyongyang, which counts Syria as an ally.<\/p>\n

Even without nuclear weapons, the North could cause severe damage with its conventional artillery batteries aimed at the South Korean capital of Seoul.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PYONGYANG, Korea, Democratic People’s Republic Of \u2014 President Donald Trump’s tweets are adding fuel to a \u201cvicious cycle\u201d of tensions …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":98340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,17],"tags":[9869,554],"class_list":["post-98339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-w","tag-donald-trump","tag-war","mauthors-eric-talmadge","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}