North Korea put on a muscle-flexing display of artillery power Tuesday to mark a national holiday and thumb its nose at US President Donald Trump’s declaration that the country has « gotta behave. »
Pyongyang staged the pounding display of large caliber guns used in land warfare — perhaps a reminder that Seoul and its US military base lie within easy reach — shortly after detaining an American teacher, the third US citizen held by the regime.
The US staged its own response, beginning joint naval drills in the region with South Korea and Japan as the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson moved toward the Korean peninsula and one of the most powerul submarines in the American arsenal arrived in South Korea — part of an « armada » the US was sending to the region, Trump told the Fox Business Network in mid-April.
On Wednesday, the White House will hold an unusual briefing about the Hermit Kingdom, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and other officials outlining the threat for the entire Senate. On Friday, Tillerson will host a meeting on North Korea at the UN. And on Monday, Trump called on visiting UN ambassadors to apply more sanctions on Pyongyang.
Tensions surrounding North Korea, long on the rise, have risen sharply since Trump took office. Pyongyang has continued its pursuit of nuclear weapons and the missile capability to deliver a bomb as far as the continental US, even as the new president has declared the status quo is « unacceptable. »
Trump is making made a full-force effort to get China to pressure the rogue regime into compliance, declaring that if Beijing doesn’t do something, « we will. »
North Korea responded in a statement Tuesday, slamming the « ridiculous and foolhardy » Trump administration for taking steps that are « little short of lighting the fuse of a total war under the present touch-and-go situation on the Korean Peninsula. »
The statement, attributed to a Foreign Ministry spokesman and using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, said that « the root causes of pushing the DPRK to have access to nukes » included US attempts to isolate them internationally along with « the nuclear threat » the US has posed to North Korea for « more than half a century. »
The DPRK will stand against the US and « cut the windpipe of the US imperialists by dint of the strong revolutionary forces with the nuclear force, an almighty treasured sword, as their pivot, » the statement said.
The growing danger has alarmed observers, analysts and lawmakers alike, in part because all attempts by former administrations to stop or slow the North Korean program through sanctions, aid, talks and attempts to draw Pyongyang into the world community have failed.
