UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday
targeting the U.S. mainland with its rockets was inevitable after "Mr.
Evil President" Donald Trump called Pyongyang's leader "rocket
man", further escalating rhetoric over the North's nuclear weapons and
missile programmes.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho's remarks to the United
Nations General Assembly came hours after U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers
escorted by fighters flew in international airspace over waters east of North
Korea in a show of force the Pentagon said showed the range of military options
available to Trump.
Ri's speech capped a week of rising tensions between Washington and
Pyongyang, with Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un trading insults.
Trump called Kim a "madman" on Friday, a day after Kim dubbed him a
"mentally deranged U.S. dotard."
On Saturday, the mudslinging continued with Ri calling Trump "a
mentally deranged person full of megalomania and complacency" who is
trying to turn the United Nations into a "gangsters' nest". Ri said
Trump himself was on a "suicide mission" after the U.S. president had
said Kim was on such a mission.
"'President Evil' is holding the seat of the U.S.
President," Ri said, warning that Pyongyang was ready to defend
itself if the United States showed any sign of conducting a "decapitating
operation on our headquarters or military attack against our country".
“Now we are finally only a few steps away from the final gate of
completion of the state nuclear force,” Ri told the annual gathering of world
leaders.
He said sanctions would have no effect on Pyongyang's resolve to
develop its nuclear weapons, with the ultimate goal being "balance of
power with the U.S."
Trump announced new U.S. sanctions on Thursday that he said allow
targeting of companies and institutions that finance and facilitate trade with
North Korea.
Earlier this month the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted its
ninth round of sanctions on Pyongyang to counter its nuclear and ballistic
missiles programs.
The U.S. bombers' flight was the farthest north of the demilitarized
zone separating North and South Korea that any U.S. fighter jet or bomber has
flown in the 21st century, the Pentagon said.
"This mission is a demonstration of U.S. resolve and a clear
message that the President has many military options to defeat any
threat," said Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White.
"We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to
defend the U.S. homeland and our allies."
North Korea has launched dozens of missiles this year, several flying
over Japan, as it accelerates its programme aimed at enabling it to target the
United States with a nuclear-tipped missile.
Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and
has threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific.
Ri met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after delivering
his speech. Guterres expressed concern to Ri over the escalating tensions and
appealed for de-escalation, the United Nations said in a statement.
The Pentagon said the B-1B bombers came from Guam and their U.S. Air
Force F-15C Eagle fighter escorts came from Okinawa, Japan. Previous shows of
force with bombers have stayed south of the demilitarized zone.
The patrols came after officials and experts said a small earthquake
near North Korea's nuclear test site on Saturday was probably not man-made,
easing fears Pyongyang had exploded another nuclear bomb just weeks after its
last one.
China's Earthquake Administration said the quake was not a nuclear
explosion and had the characteristics of a natural tremor.
The CTBTO, or Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which
monitors nuclear tests, and officials of the South Korean meteorological agency
also said they believed it was a natural quake.
The earthquake, which South Korea's Meteorological Agency put at
magnitude 3.0, was detected 49 km from Kilju in North Hamgyong Province, where
North Korea's known Punggye-ri nuclear site is located, the official said.
All North Korea's nuclear tests registered as earthquakes of magnitude
4.3 or above. The last registered as a magnitude 6.3.
Tensions have continued to rise around the Korean Peninsula since
Pyongyang carried out its sixth test, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions.
Trump told the United Nations on Tuesday the United States would
"totally destroy" North Korea if it threatened the United States or
its allies.
North Korea's nuclear tests to date have all been underground, and
experts say an atmospheric test, which would be the first since one by China in
1980, would be proof of the success of its weapons programme.
The United States and South Korea are technically still at war with
North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a
peace treaty.
The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South
Korea, of planning to invade and regularly threatens to destroy it and its
Asian allies.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Galbraith in Shanghai, Ben Blanchard in
Beijing, Christine Kim and Heekyong Yang in Seoul, Michael Shields in Zurich,
Denis Pinchuk in Moscow, David Brunnstrom at the United Nations and John
Walcott and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by James
Dalgleish)
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