Trump warns North Korea: US military 'locked and loaded'

Trump warns North Korea: US military 'locked and loaded'
Posted at 7:19 AM, Aug 11, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-11 08:19:30-04

President Donald Trump further escalated his rhetorical standoff with North Korea Friday morning, saying the US was ready to respond militarily should the rogue nation "act unwisely."


Trump has refused to back down in his verbal confrontation with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, suggesting to reporters Thursday that his threat to unleash "fire and fury" may not have gone far enough.

"Maybe it wasn't tough enough," Trump said at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.


The standoff between the two nuclear nations has unsettled regional allies, which are scrambling to defuse tensions.

In the crosshairs




KCNA said the plan would presented to Kim by mid-August.



On Thursday, Trump replied to North Korea's threat to hit Guam with a threat of his own.

"Let's see what he does with Guam," Trump said in apparent reference to Kim. "He does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before."

"You'll see, you'll see. And he'll see," he said.

Neighbors on edge

Two of the US' regional allies, South Korea and Japan, are taking steps to counter a potential escalation of tensions between Pyongyang and Washington.

Japan's new defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, said Thursday that Japan would "take the necessary measures," to defend itself from any strike.

Japan is in possession of US-supplied missile shield technology, including Patriot PAC-3 batteries, but these would likely need to be redeployed to have any chance of shooting down North Korean missiles.

KCNA said that its missiles would fly over three prefectures of Japan -- Hiroshima, Kochi and Shimane -- part of a corridor across Japan that does not have PAC launchers in place. The Japanese Defense Ministry told CNN no PAC-3 batteries were being deployed to those areas.

In any case, the effective range of the Patriots is very limited, Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the Rand Corporation, told CNN.

"If North Korea launches where they launched the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on July 28, (Japan) won't be able to reach that far with the Patriot," Bennett said.

South Korean presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun told journalists Friday the country's top national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, had spoken with his US counterpart, H.R. McMaster, with the North Korean threat at the top of the agenda.

"The two sides reaffirmed their promise to closely and transparently work together on the step-by-step moves that they will take in order to ensure the security of both South Korea and the United States, as well as the safety of the people," Park said.

An editorial published in Chinese state-controlled newspaper Global Times Friday said if North Korea launches missiles at the US, China will remain neutral, but if the US and South Korea initiate hostilities, China will take action.

It added that China maintains an anti-nuclear, anti-war and anti-chaos policy on the Korean Peninsula and it will resist any attempt to change the status quo.

While the Global Times is a state-sanctioned tabloid, its views do not always represent official Chinese government policies.

Ongoing rhetoric



In off-the-cuff remarks on Tuesday, Trump said: "(Kim) has been very threatening beyond a normal state," Trump said. "They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before."



All channels open

In the wide-ranging exchanges with reporters, Trump said the US will "always consider negotiations" with North Korea.

Speaking to reporters in California on Thursday, Defense Secretary James Mattis declined to discuss in detail the US military's readiness.


Mattis said he recognized his responsibility to have military options available for the President, but said the current "diplomatically led" strategy has "diplomatic traction."

"I want to stay right there," Mattis said. "Right now, the tragedy of war is well enough known it doesn't need another characterization beyond the fact that it would be catastrophic."




