President Trump’s increasingly bellicose rhetoric aimed at North Korea has pushed the US and the communist dictatorship to the brink of nuclear war, according to the North’s foreign minister.
“By his belligerent and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, so to say, lighted the fuse of war against us,” Ri Yong Ho told Russia’s state-run news agency TASS on Wednesday.
“We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words.”
At the UN, Trump mocked dictator Kim Jong Un, dubbing him “Rocket Man” and warning that the US may be forced to “totally destroy” the rogue nation.
“If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph,” Trump said. “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission.”
Ri’s threats came a day after a pair of US bombers for the first time conducted maneuvers over the Korean peninsula with the South Korean air force, and followed stepped-up saber-rattling by the president on Twitter.
Trump has repeatedly suggested military action was the only solution to the North’s belligerence and growing nuclear weapons and missile program.
“Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid hasn’t worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of US negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!” he tweeted Saturday.
“Our country has been unsuccessfully dealing with North Korea for 25 years, giving billions of dollars & getting nothing. Policy didn’t work!” he added in another tweet Monday.
North Korea has launched two missiles over Japan and conducted its sixth nuclear test in recent weeks as it advances quickly toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland.
The two Air Force B-1B bombers were joined by two F-15K fighters from the South Korean military after leaving their base in Guam, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.
After entering South Korean airspace, the two bombers carried out air-to-ground missile drills in waters off the east coast of South Korea, then flew over the South to waters near China to repeat the drill, the military said.
The foreign minister told TASS that his country was getting close to achieving its goal of assembling a nuclear arsenal.
“We have nearly achieved the final point on the way to our ultimate goal, to achieving a real balance of force with the United States. Our nuclear weapons will never be a subject matter of negotiations as long as the United States’ policy of pressure on the DPRK has not been uprooted once and for all,” he said.
Meanwhile, US defense industry stocks have soared as tensions mount.
Year-to-date, the S&P 500 Aerospace and Defense Industry subsector index is up 30 percent, compared to 12.9 percent for the S&P 500, CNBC reported.
Since July 3, when the North fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile and Trump tweeted, “Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?,” the index has climbed by 14.3 percent.
“The more people that are nervous and afraid of what’s going to happen in the world, the more it drives multiples higher,” David Chung, an analyst at Janus Henderson Investors, told the cable network.
“What we’ve seen in the last month with North Korea elevates that uncertainty.”
With Reuters