Bedminster - President Donald
Trump issued a new threat to North Korea on Friday, saying the
US military was "locked and loaded" as Pyongyang accused him
of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war and
world powers expressed alarm.
The Pentagon said the United States and South Korea would
proceed as planned with a joint military exercise in 10 days, an
action sure to further antagonize North Korea.
China, Russia and Germany voiced dismay at the war of words
between Pyongyang and Washington. Trump, who has pressed China
to help rein in its ally North Korea, said he would speak to
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday night.
In their telephone call, Xi told Trump the North Korean
nuclear issue required a peaceful resolution through talks, and
urged the "relevant side" to exercise restraint, avoiding words
or action that raise tension, China's state media
said.
Trump, vacationing at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf
resort, again referred to North Korea's leader in his latest
bellicose remarks. "Military solutions are now fully in place,
locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely," he wrote on
Twitter. "Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!"
Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2017
The term "locked and loaded," popularised in the 1949 war
film "Sands of Iwo Jima" starring American actor John Wayne,
refers to preparations for shooting a gun.
Asked later by reporters to explain the remark, Trump said:
"Those words are very, very easy to understand."
Again referring to Kim, Trump added, "If he utters one
threat ... or if he does anything with respect to Guam or any
place else that's an American territory or an American ally, he
will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast."
In remarks to reporters after a meeting with U.S. Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson and US Ambassador to the United Nations
Nikki Haley, Trump said the situation with North Korea was "very
dangerous and it will not continue."
"We will see what happens. We think that lots of good things
could happen, and we could also have a bad solution," he said.
Despite the tough rhetoric, Trump insisted that "nobody
loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump."
Trump said he thought US allies South Korea and Japan were
"very happy" with how he was handling the confrontation.
The president, a wealthy businessman and former reality
television personality, sent his tweet after North Korean state
news agency, KCNA, said in a statement that "Trump is driving
the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear
war."
Guam, the Pacific island that is a US territory, posted
emergency guidelines on Friday to help residents prepare for any
potential nuclear attack after a threat from North Korea to fire
missiles in its vicinity.
Guam Governor Guam Eddie Baza Calvo speaks to the media in his office in Adelup, Guam. Picture: AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa
Guam is home to a US air base, a Navy installation, a
Coast Guard group and roughly 6,000 US military personnel.
KCNA said on Thursday the North Korean army would complete plans
in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over
Japan to land in the sea 18-25 miles (30-40 km) from Guam.
Trump called the governor of Guam, Eddie Baza Calvo. "We are
with you a thousand percent. You are safe," Trump told Calvo,
who posted a video of him speaking with the president on
Facebook.
Washington wants to stop Pyongyang from developing nuclear
missiles that could hit the United States. North Korea sees its
nuclear arsenal as protection against the United States and its
partners in Asia.
Trump said he was considering additional sanctions on North
Korea, adding these would be "very strong." He gave no details
and did not make clear whether he meant unilateral or
multilateral sanctions.
US officials have said new U.S. steps that would target
Chinese banks and firms doing business with Pyongyang are in the
works, but these have appeared to be put on hold to give Beijing
time to show it is serious about enforcing new UN sanctions.
'OVER THE TOP'
Trump said he did not want to talk about diplomatic "back
channels" with North Korea after U.S. media reports that Joseph
Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, has engaged in
diplomacy for several months with Pak Song Il, a senior diplomat
at Pyongyang's U.N. mission, on the deteriorating relations and
the issue of Americans imprisoned in North Korea.
But Daniel Russel, the former top U.S. diplomat for East
Asia until April, said this so-called New York channel had been
a relatively commonplace means of communication with North Korea
over the years, and it was not a forum for negotiation.
"It's never been a vehicle for negotiations and this doesn’t
constitute substantive U.S.-DPRK dialogue," he said, using the
acronym for North Korea's formal name, Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged
Pyongyang and Washington to sign up to a previously unveiled
joint Russian-Chinese plan under which North Korea would freeze
missile tests and the United States and South Korea would impose
a moratorium on large-scale military exercises. Neither the
United States nor North Korea has embraced the plan.
Lavrov said the risks of a military conflict over North
Korea's nuclear program are very high and Moscow is deeply
worried by the threats from both sides.
"Unfortunately, the rhetoric in Washington and Pyongyang is
now starting to go over the top," Lavrov said on live state
television at a forum for Russian students. "We still hope and
believe that common sense will prevail."
The annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise, called
Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, is expected to proceed as scheduled
starting on Aug. 21, said Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan,
a Pentagon spokesman.
Trump's latest comments were a continuation of days of
incendiary rhetoric, including his warning on Tuesday that the
United States would unleash "fire and fury" on Pyongyang if it
threatened the United States.
Amid the heated words, South Koreans are buying more
ready-to-eat meals that could be used in an emergency and the
government is going to expand nationwide civil defense drills
planned for Aug. 23. Hundreds of thousands of troops and huge
arsenals are arrayed on both sides of the tense demilitarized
zone between the two Koreas.
TRUMP RESPONDS TO MERKEL
Tension in the region rose when North Korea staged two
nuclear bomb tests last year and increased further when it
launched two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests in
July in defiance of world powers.
The United Nations this month tightened sanctions on
Pyongyang after it tested two ICBMs designed to carry nuclear
warheads to the United States.
The damage inflicted on world stocks this week by the
tensions topped $1 trillion by Friday, as investors again took
cover in the yen, the Swiss franc, gold and government bonds.
U.S. financial markets took the increased rhetoric in
stride. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.07
percent while the S&P 500 gained 0.13 percent and the
Nasdaq Composite firmed 0.64 percent.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is no military
solution, adding that "an escalation of the rhetoric is the
wrong answer."
"I see the need for enduring work at the UN Security
Council ... as well as tight cooperation between the countries
involved, especially the U.S. and China," she told reporters in
Berlin.
Trump said hours later, "Let her speak for Germany."
China, North Korea's most important trading partner, hopes
all sides can do more to help ease the crisis and increase
mutual trust, rather than taking turns in shows of strength, the
Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
On Thursday, Trump reiterated complaints about the U.S.
trade imbalance with China and said he would feel "differently"
about the trade issue if China helped more on North Korea.