North Korea escalated its criticism of the United States, as well as its neighboring allies, on Tuesday by warning that it will mobilize all its resources to take “physical action” in retaliation against the latest round of United Nations sanctions.
President Trump threatened Tuesday to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it endangers the United States as tensions with the isolated nuclear-powered state grow into perhaps the most serious foreign policy challenge yet in his young administration.
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States, ” Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N. J. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said they will be met with fire and fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”
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The president’s comments came as North Korea earlier in the day escalated its criticism of the United States, as well as its neighboring allies, by warning that it will mobilize all its resources to take “physical action” in retaliation against the latest round of UN sanctions.
Trump’s statements also followed a report in The Washington Post that North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, crossing a key threshold on the path to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power. US intelligence officials reached that conclusion in a confidential assessment.
North Korea’s latest criticism, carried by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, was the strongest indication yet that the country could conduct another nuclear or missile test, as it had often done in response to past UN sanctions. Until now, the North’s response to the latest sanctions had been limited to strident yet vague warnings, such as threatening retaliation “thousands of times over.”
“Packs of wolves are coming in attack to strangle a nation, ” the North Korean statement said. “They should be mindful that the DPRK’s strategic steps accompanied by physical action will be taken mercilessly with the mobilization of all its national strength.”
On Wednesday, North Korea said it is examining its operational plans for attacking Guam to contain US bases there.
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The army said in a statement distributed by the state-run news agency that it is studying a plan to create an ‘ ‘enveloping fire’ ’ in areas around Guam with medium- to long-range ballistic missiles.
