Donald Trump is still not the president but he’s certainly acting as if he were – although his actions are far from presidential. Late Monday afternoon Trump tried to provoke two powerful foreign countries over nuclear weapons, just ten days after calling for a nuclear arms race with Russia.
His first nuclear tweet was almost a dare to the highly volatile North Korea (DPRK):
His second was to China, a nuclear power:
Independent journalist Leah McElrath who has written about Trump for Salon made the observation:
Also on Twitter, many are sounding the alarm:
Trump Doubles Down On Nuclear Tweet: ‚Let It Be An Arms Race‘
After Trump Asks Why US Can’t Use Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Launch Officer Warns ‚Buckle the Hell Up‘
Trump Says He Wants to Increase America’s Stockpile of Nuclear Weapons – After Putin Just Said He Does Too
Nearly Half of Voters Believe Donald Trump Will Drop a Nuclear Bomb if He’s Elected
A Trump Presidency Would Be Such a Crisis It Was Just Added to The Economist’s Top Ten Global Risks
Watch: Trump Spokeswoman Says Trump Won’t Be Afraid To Use Nuclear Weapons
Trump Gaining Control of Nuclear Weapons ‚Could End Mankind‘ Says Director of Top Think Tank
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US President-elect Donald Trump’s „clear warning“ to North Korea shows he is aware of the urgency of the threat posed by its nuclear programme and will not waver from a policy of sanctions against the isolated country, South Korea has said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Sunday that his nuclear-capable country was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile, raising the prospect of putting parts of the United States in range.
Taking to Twitter, Mr Trump dismissed the claim, saying „It won’t happen. “
South Korea’s foreign ministry said Mr Trump’s comment, his first mention of the North Korean nuclear issue since the US election in November, could be interpreted as a „clear warning“ to the North.
„Because of our active outreach, President-elect Trump and US officials are clearly aware of the gravity and urgency of the North Korean nuclear threat,“ ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck told a briefing.
„They are maintaining an unwavering stance on the need for sanctions on North Korea and for close cooperation between South Korea and the US“.
Mr Trump has not outlined a policy on North Korea, but during the US election campaign indicated he would be willing to talk its leader, Mr Kim, given the opportunity.
He has also been critical of China over the issue. Yesterday, Mr Trump said China had benefited from its economic ties with the US but would not use its influence to help control North Korea.
Responding to the comment, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China had been pushing for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
„China’s efforts in this regard are perfectly obvious,“ Mr Geng told a news briefing. “
As a permanent member of the UN Security Council we have proactively participated in relevant discussions on the North Korean nuclear issue and have jointly passed several resolutions with other parties.
„This shows China’s responsible attitude,“ Mr Shuang added.
For years the US has dismissed North Korean calls for talks, insisting it must disarm first.
Instead, the US and ally South Korea have responded to two North Korean nuclear tests and various missile tests last year with ever-more severe sanctions.
The UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea at the end of November after the country carried out its fifth and largest nuclear test so far in September.
A North Korean ICBM, once fully developed, could threaten the continental US, which is about 9,000 km from the North.
ICBMs have a minimum range of about 5,500 km, but some are designed to travel 10,000 km or further.
North Korea worked last year on developing components for an ICBM, making the claim that it was close to a test-launch plausible, international weapons experts said yesterday.

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North Korea kicked off 2017 with Kim Jong Un suggesting the country is nearly ready to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.
But President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t seem convinced, saying “it won’t happen.”
North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U. S. It won’t happen!
Trump responded to Kim’s annual New Year’s address on Sunday, in which he said that plans for launching a missile have “reached the final stage,“ though he did not explicitly say it was an intercontinental ballistic missile. The test would come a year after testing what the North claims was its first hydrogen bomb.
During his speech, Kim said he would bolster his country’s military capabilities unless the U. S. stopped war games with South Korea. He stopped short of threatening a war with the South, arguing that the country had to avoid another Korean war. Instead, he said, the country should focus on building its economy under a five-year plan announced in May.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said in a statement that it “strongly condemns” Kim’s threat to proceed with a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile and strengthen North Korea’s nuclear-weapon capabilities.
Trump has said in the past that he would work with China to “close down” North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, but that strategy may have changed. During the general election he said it was up to China to deal with the threat North Korea posed in the region.
China, North Korea’s biggest ally, signed on to international sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council in response to North Korea’s nuclear weapons tests, but one expert told USA TODAY it could walk away from them.
Trump followed up with a swipe at China and its relationship with North Korea.
China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U. S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!

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SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of – U. S. President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter to vow that North Korea won’t develop a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the United States. But it might already have done so.
Views vary, sometimes wildly, on the exact state of North Korea’s closely-guarded nuclear and missile programs, but after five atomic test explosions and a rising number of ballistic missile test launches, some experts believe North Korea can arm short- and mid-range missiles with atomic warheads.
READ MORE: North Korea ‘won’t’ develop nuclear weapon capable of reaching US, Donald Trump says
That would allow Pyongyang to threaten U. S. forces stationed in Asia and add teeth to its threat last year to use nuclear weapons to “sweep Guam, the base of provocations, from the surface of the earth.”
Guam is a strategically important U. S. territory in the Pacific. Some experts see the U. S. mainland as potentially within reach in as little as five years if North Korea’s nuclear progress isn’t stopped.
Trump’s tweet on Monday night U. S. time was in response to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who said Sunday in his annual New Year’s address that preparations for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile have “reached the final stage.” He did not explicitly say a test was imminent.
Trump tweeted, “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U. S. It won’t happen!”
READ MORE: North Korea says long-range missiles development is ‘in final stages’
Trump counsellor Kellyanne Conway said Monday on MSNBC that the world should be grateful Trump told millions of people that, where the North Korean threat is concerned, “he intends to stop it.”
WATCH: Donald Trump blames Hillary Clinton for North Korea’s nuclear tests
North Korea, poor, suspicious of outsiders and governed by a third-generation dictator, is used to being underestimated and mocked. Few believed it could build a nuclear program that would keep U. S. presidents since the early 1990s up at night.
Armed to the teeth, acutely bellicose and not afraid to push tensions on the Korean Peninsula to the brink, Pyongyang could be among Trump’s top foreign policy challenges.
Here’s a look at how close North Korea may already be to proving Trump’s tweet wrong:
THE NUKES
There’s a general consensus that Pyongyang has made significant nuclear and missile progress under Kim, who took over after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in late 2011.
Kim has conducted three of the country’s five total nuclear tests, including two last year. Propaganda out of Pyongyang makes clear that North Korea views nuclear weapons as essential to keeping at bay U. S. and South Korean forces it says are intent on its destruction.
READ MORE: US spy chief: getting North Korea to give up nuclear weapons ‘a lost cause’
Some U. S. experts believe North Korea may have enough fuel for about 20 bombs, with a half dozen more possible each year.
Fuel is one thing; it’s much more difficult to develop the technology needed to build bombs small enough to fit on missile tips.
Each new nuclear test, however, pushes the North another big step toward its goal of an arsenal of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the U. S. mainland.
THE MISSILES
Outsiders don’t know for sure whether North Korea can arm any of its ballistic missiles, regardless of range, with nuclear warheads yet.
But Siegfried Hecker, a leading North Korea nuclear expert, wrote after last year’s September nuclear test that outsiders should now assume that Pyongyang has “designed and demonstrated” atomic warheads that can be placed on short- and possibly medium-range missiles.
WATCH: South Korea has an assassination plan for Kim Jong Un: report
North Korea may deploy a “working, nuclear-tipped ballistic missile” by 2020, according to another expert, Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute.
North Korea has an arsenal of short-range Scuds and mid-range Rodong missiles, and some South Korean experts believe those can already be armed with nukes.
That would put in danger the roughly 28,000 U. S. forces in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan.
READ MORE: North Korea fails to launch another missile: US military
While there’s not a consensus, some South Korean experts also believe the North can place a nuclear warhead on the more powerful mid-range Musudan missile, which could target Guam, about 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) away. Last year, after a string of failures, North Korea launched a Musudan missile that some experts considered a success.
Kim Jong Un has already conducted more ballistic missile tests, including from submarines, in his short time in power than his father did during his entire 18-year reign, Graham wrote last year.
This has allowed “refinements” in solid propellants, road mobility and experiments with vertical launches to high altitudes that could complicate U. S. and Japanese missile defence systems’ efforts to intercept, Graham wrote.
PUTTING IT TOGETHER
Even if North Korea can fit a nuclear weapon on a missile, it has yet to meet the even greater challenge of building a nuclear-tipped ICBM capable of hitting the U. S. mainland.
Since 2012, North Korea has conducted three satellite launches using long-range rockets, in what outsiders consider covers for banned tests of ICBM technology.
As with the nuclear detonations, each new rocket test puts the North closer to having a nuclear missile that can target the U. S. mainland. Hecker estimates that it may take North Korea five to 10 years to succeed.
CHINA’S ROLE
Another tweet from Trump criticized China, North Korea’s most important ally, for not doing more to discourage its nuclear weapons program: “China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U. S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!”
While Beijing has publicly reprimanded Pyongyang after nuclear tests and has agreed to rounds of U. N. sanctions against the North, critics say China hasn’t done enough to tighten economic pressure.
READ MORE: Reports of activity at North Korean satellite launch site
Hours after Trump’s comments, the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper accused him of “pandering to ‘irresponsible’ attitudes.” It said Pyongyang’s nuclear program “stokes the anxieties of some Americans” who blame China rather than looking inward.
WHAT’S NEXT
Pyongyang has a habit of taking a swing at new U. S. presidents, so Trump may not have long to wait before getting a fresh look at North Korean nuclear or missile technology.
Or both: In 2009, a newly inaugurated Barack Obama was greeted with a nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch.

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