Trump and Kim trade insults as Pyongyang threatens weapons test

SEOUL/WASHINGTON — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “will be tested like never before,” United States President Donald Trump said on Friday (Sept 22) as the two leaders continued to trade insults and Pyongyang threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.

“Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before,” Mr Trump tweeted, one day after announcing additional sanctions on the reclusive regime.

Earlier in the day, Mr Kim lobbed a string of insults at Mr Trump, calling him a “mentally deranged US dotard” and hinting at frightening new weapons tests.

It was the first time for a North Korean leader to issue such a direct statement against a US president, dramatically escalating the war of words between the former wartime foes and raising the international nuclear standoff to a new level.

In a lengthy statement carried by state media, Mr Kim said Mr Trump would “pay dearly” for his recent threat to destroy North Korea. He also called Mr Trump “deranged” and “a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire”.

Mr Kim said his country will consider the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history,” a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon, but didn’t elaborate.

His foreign minister, asked on a visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly what the countermeasure would be, said his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.

“I think it could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific,’’ Mr Ri Yong-ho said, according to South Korean TV. “We have no idea about what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong-un.”

Mr Kim’s statement was unusual because it was written in the first person. North Korean state TV later showed a solemn-looking Mr Kim, dressed in a gray Mao-style suit, reading the statement. South Korea’s government said it was the first direct address to the world by any North Korean leader.

Detonating a nuclear-tipped missile over the Pacific Ocean would be a logical final step by North Korea to prove the success of its weapons programme but would be extremely provocative and carry huge risks, said arms control experts.

“It may mean North Korea will fire a warhead-tipped (intermediate range) Hwasong-12 or Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile and blow it up a few hundred kilometres above the Pacific Ocean,” said Mr Yang Uk, a senior researcher at the Korea Defence and Security Forum in Seoul.

“They may be bluffing, but there is a need for them to test their combined missile-bomb capability. They could have already prepared the plan and are now trying to use Trump’s remarks as an excuse to make it happen,” said Mr Yang.

An H-bomb in the Pacific, if realised, would be considered a major provocation by Washington and its allies. North Korea has conducted six nuclear test explosions since 2006, all at its northeastern underground test site.

Mr Vipin Narang, a nuclear strategy expert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said such a test could pose a danger to shipping and aircraft, even if North Korea declares a keep-out zone.

“And if the test doesn’t go according to plan, you could have population at risk, too,” he said. “We are talking about putting a live nuclear warhead on a missile that has been tested only a handful of times. It is truly terrifying if something goes wrong.”

Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera noted a Pacific test could mean a nuclear-armed missile flying over Japan. He said North Korea might conduct an H-bomb test with a medium-range or intercontinental ballistic missile, given its recent advances in missile and nuclear weapons development.

“We cannot deny the possibility it may fly over our country,” he said.

North Korea was slapped with new, stiffer sanctions by the UN after its sixth and most power nuclear test on September 3. In recent months, it has also launched a pair of still-developmental intercontinental ballistic missiles it said were capable of striking the continental US and two intermediate-range missiles that soared over Japanese territory.

North Korea says it needs to have a nuclear deterrent because the US intends to invade it. Analysts say the North is likely to soon achieve its objective of possessing nuclear missiles capable of reaching any part of the US homeland.

Mr Kim’s statement was in response to Mr Trump’s combative speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday in which he mocked Mr Kim as “Rocket Man” on a “suicide mission” and said that if “forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea”.

Mr Kim said Mr Trump’s remarks “have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last”. He also said he would “tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire”.

Hours before Mr Kim’s statement, Mr Trump announced stiffer new sanctions on North Korea as he met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in New York.

“North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development is a grave threat to peace and security in our world and it is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal, rogue regime,” Mr Trump said as he joined South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for lunch.

Mr Trump’s executive order expanded the Treasury Department’s ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea, and to ban them from interacting with the US financial system.

He also praised China for what he called an instruction to its banks to cut off business with North Korea. But a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Mr Trump’s announcement was “not consistent with the facts”, though he gave no indication what steps China might be taking.

“In principle, China has always implemented the UN Security Council’s resolutions in their entirety and fulfilled our due responsibility,” Mr Lu Kang, the Chinese spokesman, told a regular briefing.

China, North Korea’s largest trading partner and last major diplomatic ally, has cut off imports of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods from North Korea in line with UN sanctions.

The South Korean government, which has sought a dialogue with North Korea, called Mr Kim’s statement a “reckless provocation” that would deepen the North’s international isolation and lead to its demise.

American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged that escalating tensions with North Korea were challenging but said diplomatic efforts will continue amid harsh rhetoric and threats of military confrontation.

“We are quite challenged but our diplomatic efforts continue unabated,” Mr Tillerson said in an interview with ABC. “We have put in place the strongest economic sanctions ever to have been assembled against Kim Jong-un.” “So he is being tested with the sanctions, voices from every corner of the world.” AGENCIES