It had been several weeks since we had the familiar verbal jawboning back and forth between North Korea and Donald Trump, and so to break the monotony, North Korea’s foreign minister decided to lob several provocations at Donald Trump, whom Pyongyang is clearly trolling at this point, claiming that it was Trump’s speech at the UN last month that “lit the wick of war”, and that North Korea will make the US pay “with a hail of fire.” The diplomatic also said that North Korea has “almost achieved a balance of power” with the US.
- N.KOREA FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS TRUMP ‘LIT THE WICK OF WAR’ WITH SPEECH AT UN – TASS
- NORTH KOREA FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS NORTH KOREA WILL MAKE U.S. PAY WITH HAIL OF FIRE
- NORTH KOREA FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS N.K. HAS ALMOST ACHIEVED BALANCE OF POWER WITH USA: TASS
He also told TASS that to “strengthen sanctions is an act of war & attack” against North Korea.
Separately, North Korea crushed any hopes for de-escalation and de-nuclearization, something which even China has recently been asking for, and claimed that North Korea’s “nuclear program guarantees peace and safety in the region” and more apropos, that the country’s nuclear program will “never be a matter of discussion while the US is intent on crushing North Korea.”
- N.KOREA FOREIGN MINISTER TELLS RUSSIA’S TASS THAT N.KOREA NUCLEAR PROGRAMME GUARANTEES PEACE AND SAFETY IN REGION
- N.KOREA FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS NUCLEAR PROGRAMME WILL NEVER BE MATTER OF DISCUSSION WHILE U.S. INTENT ON CRUSHING N.KOREA – TASS
Which covers the words, as for the deeds, earlier today the Seoul-based Asia Business Daily reported that North korea is preparing to fire “multiple short-range rockets around the opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress on Oct. 18” and added that the U.S. and South Korean militaries have recently spotted about 30 Scud rockets being moved from Hwangju, south of the capital Pyongyang, to a missile maintenance facility in the western coastal city of Nampo.
As usual, should Kim proceed with another test launch, he leaves the ball in Trump’s court, and while until recently it was largely a given that Trump would do nothing, following his recent comments about a “calm before the storm”, another provocation greenlighting a US intervention in North Korea, may be just what the president is hoping for, potential deadly retaliation which according to some estimates could kill over 2 million South Koreans, be damned.
via http://ift.tt/2zg3Rjd Tyler Durden