The short, reclusive North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un escalated tensions around the world with his most aggressive move yet Friday, when he ordered his military to be ready to launch nuclear strikes at any time.
The order was reported by North Korean state media Friday, and is a significant escalation in rhetoric aimed at Seoul and Washington.
The threats are part of the authoritarian government’s ramped-up propaganda push to signal strength at home and abroad in the face of what it portrays as an effort by South Korea and the United States to overthrow its leadership.
In North Korea’s first official response to the U.N.’s recent adoption of harsh sanctions over its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch, the North also warned Friday it will bolster its nuclear arsenal and make unspecified “strong and merciless physical” measures. A government statement called the U.N. sanctions the “most heinous international criminal act” aimed at isolating and stifling the country.
“The only way for defending the sovereignty of our nation and its right to existence under the present extreme situation is to bolster up nuclear force both in quality and quantity,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said, paraphrasing Kim. It said Kim stressed “the need to get the nuclear warheads deployed for national defense always on standby so as to be fired any moment.”
North Korea has threatened nuclear war in the past, but it is unclear just how advanced the country’s nuclear program really is. It is thought to have a handful of crude atomic bombs, but there is considerable outside debate about the state of its arsenal.
Most experts say it’s highly unlikely that North Korea currently has a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching U.S. shores, let alone the ability to arm it with a miniaturized nuclear warhead. But North Korea can probably place nuclear warheads on its shorter-range Scuds and its 1,300-kilometer-range Rodong missiles, which can strike targets in South Korea and Japan, said Lee Choon Geun, an analyst from South Korea’s state-funded Science and Technology Policy Institute. Other analysts, however, question this.
Kim issued the nuclear threat while guiding the test-firing of a new large-caliber multiple launch rocket system, in a likely reference to six short-range projectiles that Seoul says North Korea fired on Thursday.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the projectiles, fired from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan, flew about 100 to 150 kilometers (60 to 90 miles) and landed in the sea. Ministry officials said they couldn’t confirm whether they were fired by the weapons system referred to by the North Korean news agency. The report did not say when the test-firing occurred.
Thursday’s firings were seen as a “low-level” response to the U.N. sanctions, with North Korea unlikely to launch any major provocation until its landmark ruling Workers’ Party convention in May, according to Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
The U.N. Security Council sanctions, the toughest of their kind in two decades, include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by land, sea or air; a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to the North; and the expulsion of North Korean diplomats who engage in “illicit activities.”
The North Korean statement described the sanctions as “nothing new” and “not that surprising.” Citizens of the capital, Pyongyang, interviewed Thursday said they believe their country can fight off any sanctions, in a reflection of official propaganda.
Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates new activity, possibly preparations for a rocket engine test, at a launch site where North Korea fired a long-range rocket on Feb. 6, according to an analysis by the North Korea-focused 38 North website.
In another development that will anger North Korea, South Korean and U.S. officials began formal talks Friday on deploying a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system in South Korea.
The deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, is opposed by North Korea, China and Russia. Opponents say the system could help U.S. radar spot missiles in other countries as well.
The U.S. and South Korea are to kick off large war games next week that North Korea says are preparations for an invasion. South Korea is also taking a much harder line meant to squeeze North Korea’s government.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Thursday she will cooperate with the international community in trying to end North Korean “tyranny that suppresses the freedom and human rights” of its own people. She recently warned of North Korea’s future collapse, and South Korea’s National Assembly passed a human rights bill that criticizes the North Korean government’s abysmal treatment of its citizens.
In January, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb. Last month, it put a satellite into orbit with a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others saw as a cover for a test of banned ballistic missile technology.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
MacArthur was correct 65 years ago.
Roger that. We need to make a preemptive strike now and send this bastard to hell and free the North Korean people to be able to live in peace in a democratic unified Korea.
HIS OWN PEOPLE WILL DO IT FOR US.LIKE HITLER WITH MULTIBLE ASSINATIONS ATTEMPTS .HE IS ALSO KILLING HIS GENERALS AND PARTY MEMBERS.THERE WILL BE A REBELIAN.SOON
Sure – free the people by blowing them to pieces! Bring them peace and democracy by bombing their cites to rubble! Then setup some industry, like narcotics production so the survivors will have jobs. Then the empire will dominate. It’s working great in Afghanistan.
so?
Right on, John. Reminds one of Hag Hillary’s comment, “we came, we saw, he died, hee, hee ,hee “.
Yes
Evidently Kim Jong Un doesn’t want to live much longer. The little fat boy may get what he wants, from Japan.
And what in the hell is the muslims in the white house and congress doing about north kprea, their trying to figure out a way to pardon hillary clinton, and blame it on the American people. And where is the red line now?
Gen. MacArthur was correct 65 years ago.
I’m personally tired of his threats! If his little short ass wants to get it on then bring it
Obama needs to move out and Speaker Paul than needs to take over for the remainder of his term. I would support this take over. By the way, Wahington was only worried about Trump yesterday, not the impending news of this lunatic. Anyone agree?
Maybe they don’t care and want this to happen to cause mass hysteria and the Marshall law can take over like 911 and in Boston!!
he is also fat- in body and brain!!!!!!
What a worthless ass hole
I agree
I dare you to say that in Pyongyang, In fact I double dog dare you.
This guy is as stupid as obama!
Didn’t you know?… they are fraternal twins…separated by birth, but have the same intelligence level!
Stop complimenting Kim and Obama!! ;]
Someone needs to put this punk brat over their knee and give him/her/it a good spanking.
I believe a plan to use a North Korean in the manner of the Moslem Jihadist is in order. There must be someone in the regime that would if enabled blowup the Premier.
Save everyone a lot of money – put a 50 Million plus price on his had, the problem
will be taken care of ;
Its true!!! every day is a new day,Never a dull moment.
This order is likely intended more for the home crowd than for the civilized world. This order makes the North Korean people think they are in danger. State-run media shows their young leader standing up to the evil plans of the rest of the world. When nothing happens the North Koreans come to believe that it is because of their brave and tough leader.
This is nothing more than an exercise in mind control to keep an evil, incompetent leader in power. This guy and his father and grandfather are perfect examples of incompetence. These leaders have impoverished and starved their own people. The best tool the West could use against North Korea is to litter the countryside with magazines showing how much better life is in South Korea where people are allowed to prosper and where they are well-fed.
It seems to me that Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump share the same speech writers.
YOU ARE RIGHT ON TARGET! NICE 2 KNOW OTHERS SEE THIS NONSENSE 4 IT’S REAL PURPOSE.
After he gets them set up drop one bomb and take them all out. I don’t think we will see them again.
This punk leader does not have the ball’s
All of the comments are true in one way or the other. Here we have the pimple on the ass of the world trying to get the world to recognize him as a great leader. I wonder if he knows that his own people laugh at him behind his back. On a lighter note seeing as how the democrats need something to take the peoples minds off of the crap that’s about to befall communist Clinton I would not put it past our own government to have a hand in helping tiny kim along. The best solution to the problem is to just laugh at him. Not mentioning him in any communications also would help. Dropping leaflets is also an excellent idea. Just think a very small drone, which are available, could fly over at night and drop a few leaflets over the towns along the border and fly back without being seen or heard. This should really piss him off and maybe educate the people.
Given that this little shit is an amalgamation of Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao and Charles Manson, and seems ready to blowtorch America (and the rest of the world’s round-eyes, how about an anonymous nut-buster bunker bomb zeroed onto his Pyongyang Palace? “WHA? He was vaporized by some mean, rogue nation? Why, that’s so scandalous and not-nice. Here in the innocent U.S.A., we’ll assign this outrage to Sen. Harry Reid, speedy legislative whiz, and get some rapid U.N. sanction slapped on the awful perpetrator. Honest.”
World Issues have gotten crazier these months & last years at lately! The N.K. nation at past control or too harsh last decades ! Take back more U.S. control to be overall gives N.K. state strifes besides to entire world’s pains notable concerns turmoil to newer event of world wars!
Notice the dictator of N Korea is in charge over in his country. China is not Trump is wrong again.
That’s a pitiful comment Lois Wenk…for a time I thought you could come up with something sensible …but I’m wrong about that, what a pity! Actually, one has to read your comment here two or three times to try and make sense of it….”China is not Trump is wrong again”…perhaps rephrasing and some proper punctuation might help…but I doubt it! Few, if any of your nonsensical posts make any sense!!!
WTF?
This is what happens when a weak president doesn’t do his job, and/or ignores all else. The man talks and talks and lies and lies; meanwhile the bullies of the world, in what ever form, sense weakness and prepare to pounce. They may not exactly strike at us but how many other innocents will become involved and harmed because America is no longer capable or willing to carry the big stick and just keep the peace, or, at least stabilize what it can in an increasingly dangerous world? Golf is a funny game indeed!!
the “short” fat ugly Korean is going to nuke the tall slender Americans
Let’s NUKE them.
Did some one tell him he couldn’t have desert? If anything, it amazes me, that he’s not mad at his barber. One of these days he’s going to push that, ‘I’m going to scare everyone bit to far. I’m thinking China probably doesn’t like this little clown stirring hostile feelings from the rest of the world since they share boarders.. Someone needs to put this little fat clown over their knee, and spank him…
Again….., this administration has taken the “eyes” off of the ball. And in so doing, we have been placed in a very tight spot. Look, this guy with that Bad Haircut, is really a “piece of ODD work”, and were playing games with him and yea others and really look what it has gotten us……We, have enemies to the front, back and both side of us, and all this WH wants to do is give big talks……saying nothing. Have parties spend BIG BUCKS and oh yea give BIG TALKS saying nothing!