[The president’s comments came as North Korea
earlier in the day escalated its criticism of the United States, as well as its
neighboring allies, by warning that it will mobilize all its resources to take
“physical action” in retaliation against the latest round of United Nations
sanctions.]
By Peter Baker and Choe
Sang-Hun
 |
|
“North Korea best not
make any more threats to the United States,” President Trump
said after the isolated
nuclear-armed country criticized the United States earlier
in the day. By THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS. Photo by Al Drago for
The New York Times. Watch
in Times Video »
|
BRIDGEWATER,
N.J. — President Trump
threatened on Tuesday to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it
endangers the United States as tensions with the isolated nuclear-armed state
grow into perhaps the most serious foreign policy challenge yet in his young
administration.
“North Korea best not make any more threats
to the United States,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster,
N.J. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has
been very threatening beyond a normal state and as I said they will be met with
fire and fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen
before.”
The president’s comments came as North Korea
earlier in the day escalated its criticism of the United States, as well as its
neighboring allies, by warning that it will mobilize all its resources to take
“physical action” in retaliation against the latest round of United Nations
sanctions.
The statement, carried by the North’s
state-run Korean Central News Agency, was the strongest indication yet that the
country could conduct another nuclear or missile test, as it had often done in
response to past United Nations sanctions. Until now, the North’s response to
the latest sanctions had been limited to strident yet vague warnings, such as
threatening retaliation “thousands of times over.”
“Packs of wolves are coming in attack to
strangle a nation,” the North Korean statement said. “They should be mindful
that the D.P.R.K.’s strategic steps accompanied by physical action will be
taken mercilessly with the mobilization of all its national strength.”
D.P.R.K. stands for the North’s official
name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
North Korea’s statement on Tuesday appeared
to defy efforts by both Washington and Beijing to defuse the tense situation.
On Monday, while attending a regional
security meeting of foreign ministers in Manila, the United States’ secretary
of state, Rex Tillerson, kept the door open for talks with North Korea,
suggesting that the country should stop its recent string of missile launches
to set the stage for negotiations over its weapons programs. At the same venue,
Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China said he told his North Korean counterpart, Ri
Yong-ho, that the North should stop carrying out nuclear and missile tests.
Incensed by the North’s two intercontinental
ballistic missile tests last month, the United Nations Security Council adopted
a new sanctions resolution over the weekend, the eighth since the country
conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. Backers of the resolution said the
new sanctions would cut North Korea’s meager annual export revenue by about a
third, impeding its ability to raise cash for its weapons programs.
President Trump praised the sanctions in a
tweet on Tuesday morning. “After many years of failure, countries are coming
together to finally address the dangers posed by North Korea,” he said. “We
must be tough & decisive!”
The sanctions ban member countries from
importing coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood from North Korea.
They also prohibit member nations from hosting any additional workers from the
North above their current levels. Washington called the restrictions “the most
stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.”
But strong doubts remain over how rigorously
China and Russia, the North’s two neighboring allies, will enforce the
sanctions.
The sanctions also do not impair the North’s
ability to import oil and export clothing and textiles that its workers produce
for Chinese companies, although the sanctions ban new joint ventures with North
Korea and any new investment in current joint ventures. Clothing and textile
exports are a leading source of foreign currency for the impoverished country.
Officials and analysts still doubt that North
Korea has mastered the technology needed to deliver a nuclear payload on an
intercontinental ballistic missile. But its last ICBM test, conducted on July
28, alarmed Washington and its allies by demonstrating that missiles now could
potentially reach much the continental United States.
“North Korea’s development of ballistic
missiles and its nuclear program are becoming increasingly real and imminent
problems for the Asia-Pacific region including Japan, as well as the rest of
the world,” the Japanese government said in an annual threat assessment
released on Tuesday. “It is possible that North Korea has already achieved the
miniaturization of nuclear weapons and has acquired nuclear warheads.”
One of the last technical hurdles North Korea
must clear is mastering the “re-entry” know-how to protect a small nuclear warhead
as the missile crashes through the earth’s atmosphere.
The North’s fast-advancing missile
capabilities have left its neighbors South Korea and Japan scrambling for ways
to protect themselves. South Korea is racing to build up its monitoring and
striking capabilities so that its radars and reconnaissance planes can track
and neutralize North Korean missiles in pre-emptive attacks.
In March, a group of Japanese governing party
lawmakers led by Itsunori Onodera, who became Japan’s new defense minister on
Thursday, urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to consider acquiring the capability
to hit enemy bases in what would be a drastic change in the country’s
post-World War II pacifist defense posture, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Tokyo
has so far avoided taking the controversial and costly step of acquiring
bombers or cruise missiles with enough range to strike other countries.
“North Korea’s missile launches have
escalated tensions both in terms of quality and quantity. I would like to study
if our current missile defense is sufficient just with the Aegis destroyers and
PAC-3,” the surface-to-air missile interceptors, Mr. Onodera said on Friday,
according to The Associated Press.
In South Korea, some conservative politicians
and analysts are calling for the reintroduction of American tactical nuclear
weapons in South Korea to establish a “balance of terror” against the North.
The United States withdrew all nuclear weapons from the South in the early
1990s, though it occasionally sends nuclear-capable bombers and submarines here
in exercises.
On Tuesday, North Korea barely held back its
disdain for its traditional allies, China and Russia, for acquiescing to
American pressure to impose tougher sanctions.
“The
recent sanctions resolution cooked up by the U.S. and its followers is an
outcome of the horror and uneasiness of the U.S. taken aback by the might and
mettle of the D.P.R.K.,” its statement said. “It is also the label of the
weakness and servility of the riffraff who showed their hands in favor of
adopting the resolution, as they are scared by the U.S.”
The statement did not mention China or Russia
by name, only referring to “big countries” that it said abandoned their “creed,
conscience and obligation” and voted for the sanctions to gain favor with
President Trump.
Peter Baker reported from Bridgewater, N.J.,
and Choe Sang-Hun from Seoul, South Korea.