Pyongyang to US: Don’t mess with us

Ju Min Park

in Seoul Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yesterday said the United States was looking at ways to pressure North Korea over its nuclear programme as North Korean state media warned the Americans of a “super-mighty pre-emptive strike” and said “don’t mess with us”.

US President Donald Trump has taken a hard line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from sole major ally China and proceeded with nuclear and missile programmes in defiance of United Nations Security Council sanctions.

Reclusive North Korea regularly threatens to destroy Japan, South Korea and the US and has shown no let-up in its belligerence after a failed missile test on Sunday, a day after putting on a huge display of missiles at a parade in Pyongyang.

“We’re reviewing all the status of North Korea, both in terms of state sponsorship of terrorism as well as the other ways in which we can bring pressure on the regime in Pyongyang to re-engage with us, but re-engage with us on a different footing than past talks have been held,” Tillerson told reporters in Washington yesterday.

North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

South Korea’s acting President, Hwang Kyo Ahn, at a meeting with top officials yesterday, repeatedly called for the military and security ministries to maintain vigilance.

The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the US if provoked. It has said it has developed a missile that can strike the mainland US, but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturising a nuclear warhead.

Meanwhile, the official newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, the Rodong Sinmun, warned that the US and its allies “should not mess with us”.

“In the case of our super-mighty preemptive strike being launched, it will completely and immediately wipe out not only the US imperialists’ invasion forces in South Korea and its surrounding areas, but also the US mainland and reduce them to ashes,” it said. — Reuters