North Korea warns of nuclear strike if provoked; Trump 'armada' steams on

[webfact]

North Korea warns of nuclear strike if provoked; Trump 'armada' steams on

By Sue-Lin Wong

REUTERS

 

A general view of an annual central report meeting in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang April 9, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS

 

PYONGYANG (Reuters) - North Korean state media warned on Tuesday of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of American aggression, as a U.S. Navy strike group steamed toward the western Pacific - a force U.S. President Donald Trump described as an "armada".

 

Trump, who has urged China to do more to rein in its impoverished ally and neighbour, said in a Tweet that North Korea was "looking for trouble" and the United States would "solve the problem" with or without Beijing's help.

 

Tension has escalated sharply on the Korean peninsula amid concerns that reclusive North Korea may soon conduct a sixth nuclear test and after Washington said at the weekend it was diverting the aircraft carrier strike group Carl Vinson toward the Korean peninsula in a show of force.

 

"We are sending an Armada. Very powerful," Trump told Fox Business Network, adding: "We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. That I can tell you.”

 

Referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump said: “He is doing the wrong thing.” Asked if he thought Kim was mentally fit, Trump replied: “I don’t know. I don’t know him.”

 

North Korea said earlier it was prepared to respond to any U.S. aggression.

 

"Our revolutionary strong army is keenly watching every move by enemy elements with our nuclear sight focused on the U.S. invasionary bases not only in South Korea and the Pacific operation theatre but also in the U.S. mainland," its official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.

 

In spite of the military rhetoric, U.S. officials have previously stressed that stronger sanctions are the most likely U.S. course to press North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. At the same time, Washington has said all options - including military ones - are on the table and that a U.S. strike last week against Syria should serve as a warning to Pyongyang.

 

The strike group heading towards Korea includes the nuclear-powered flagship aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, two destroyers and a cruiser. Such a strike group is generally accompanied by submarines, although the Pentagon does not normally publicise this.

 

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump had put North Korea "clearly on notice" that he would not tolerate certain actions, but dismissed Pyongyang's nuclear attack threat.

 

"I think there is no evidence that North Korea has that capability at this time," he said. "Threatening something that you don't have the capability of isn't really a threat."

 

North Korea remains technically at war with the United States and its ally South Korea after the 1950-1953 Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. It regularly threatens to destroy both countries.

 

However, North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests, two of them last year, and is working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States, presenting Trump with perhaps his most pressing security headache.

 

South Korea's acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn warned of "greater provocations" by North Korea, including a possible nuclear test, given a meeting of the country's Supreme People's Assembly and upcoming national anniversaries.

 

He ordered the military to intensify monitoring and ensure close communication with Washington.

 

North Korea convened a Supreme People's Assembly session on Tuesday, one of twice-yearly sessions attended by leader Kim Jong Un, and reported a successful national budget execution and personnel appointments, the official KCNA news agency said.

 

The agency made no mention of North Korea's nuclear weapons programme or being under threat from the United States.

 

Saturday is the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founding father and grandfather of the current ruler.

 

A military parade is expected in Pyongyang to mark the day and North Korea often marks important anniversaries with tests of its nuclear or missile capabilities.

 

Men and women in colourful outfits were singing and dancing on the streets of Pyongyang, illuminated by better lighting than seen in previous years, apparently practising for the parade.

 

TRUMP PRESSES CHINA

 

Trump said in a Tweet that a trade deal between China and the United States would be "far better for them if they solved the North Korea problem".

 

"If China decides to help, that would be great," he said. "If not, we will solve the problem without them!"

 

Trump pressed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to do more on North Korea at a meeting in Florida last week.

 

China's U.N. ambassador, Liu Jieyi, called the Korean situation "tense" and repeated China's call for a return to dialogue with North Korea.

 

“We believe that it is highly important to move toward denuclearization, to maintain peace and stability, and it’s time that different sides sit down to talk about achieving these objectives,” he told Reuters.

 

Asked about Trump linking a trade deal to China’s help with North Korea: “We need to look at the situation on the Korean Peninsula as something that we should work together on.”

 

South Korean officials sought to quell social media talk of an impending crisis, and Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun urged people "not to get blinded by exaggerated assessment about the security situation".

 

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent congratulations to North Korea ahead of Kim Il Sung's birthday and said the two countries were "conducting a war against big powers' wild ambition to subject all countries to their expansionist and dominationist policy," North Korea's KCNA news agency said.

 

North Korea's foreign ministry said the approach of the U.S. Navy strike group showed Washington's "reckless moves for invading had reached a serious phase".

 

"We will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs in order to defend ourselves by powerful force of arms and keep to the road chosen by ourselves," an unidentified ministry spokesman said.

 

U.S. officials said at the weekend the carrier group would take more than a week to reach waters near the Korean peninsula.

 

A statement from U.S. forces in South Korea on Tuesday said General Vincent Brooks, commander of United States Forces Korea, would not attend a Congressional hearing expected this month because of the "security situation on the Korean Peninsula." The statement said the step was not unprecedented.

 

Russia's Foreign Ministry, ahead of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said it was concerned about many aspects of U.S. foreign policy, particularly North Korea.

 

"We are really worried about what Washington has in mind for North Korea after it hinted at the possibility of a unilateral military scenario," the ministry said in a statement.

 

China and South Korea agreed on Monday to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea if it carried out nuclear or long-range missile tests, a senior official in Seoul said.

 

On Tuesday, a fleet of North Korean cargo ships headed home, mostly fully laden, after China ordered its trading companies to return coal, sources with direct knowledge of the trade said.

 

China banned all imports of North Korean coal, the country's most important export, on Feb. 26, but Washington has questioned how well the sanction was being implemented.

 

(For a graphic on 'The Carl Vinson strike group' click http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/USA-NAVY-NORTHKOREA/010040LK1BH/USA-NAVY-NORTHKOREA.jpg)

 

(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park and Jack Kim in Seoul, Idrees Ali, David Brunnstrom, Ayesha Rascoe and Eric Beech in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Andrew Osborn in Moscow; Editing by Tom Heneghan and James Dalgleish)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-12

[jerojero]

4 ships and a Carrier is not an armada. It's simply a group of 5. And Trump isn't the only leader who may be unpredictable and should be a bit wary of Kimmy.

 

 

[Rhys]

... pretty silly boys.... drawing lines in the sand....go to sleep now...

 

 

[daveAustin]

1 hour ago, jerojero said:

4 ships and a Carrier is not an armada. It's simply a group of 5. And Trump isn't the only leader who may be unpredictable and should be a bit wary of Kimmy.

Indeed, but a very powerful group of five accompanied, no doubt, by nuke subs... way above anything fatboy slim has.

[quadperfect]

I think kim will be fired by trump

 

 

[klauskunkel]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Asked if he thought Kim was mentally fit, Trump replied: “I don’t know. I don’t know him.”

maybe he should appoint Dennis Rodman as National Security Advisor

[chilli42]

The very worst bit of all is that the general population of N Korea endure ongoing suffering no matter what direction things take.   N Korea exists only because of China (and monumental stupidity by McArthur).  Both countries need a concrete plan to sort this out without a mountain of civilian deaths.

[kowpot]

7 hours ago, jerojero said:

4 ships and a Carrier is not an armada. It's simply a group of 5. And Trump isn't the only leader who may be unpredictable and should be a bit wary of Kimmy.

 

 

This is just a minimum.  This is only one carrier group in the Pacific Fleet. If he were to launch a nuclear weapon. North Korea would cease to exist. 

 

A carrier strike group^[1] (CSG) is an operational formation of the United States Navy. It is composed of roughly 7,500 personnel, an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least two destroyers and/or frigates,^[2] and a carrier air wing of 65 to 70 aircraft. A carrier strike group also, on occasion, includes submarines, attached logistics ships and a supply ship. The carrier strike group commander operationally reports to the commander of the numbered fleet, who is operationally responsible for the area of waters in which the carrier strike group is operating.

[elgordo38]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

PYONGYANG (Reuters) - North Korean state media warned on Tuesday of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of American aggression, as a U.S. Navy strike group steamed toward the western Pacific - a force U.S. President Donald Trump described as an "armada".

Its really not hard to figure out who is the mosquito and who is the elephant in the room. I am not a violent person but I am sick and tired of listening to this flea in the room trying to bark like a dog. Its like being a cabbage diet for a year. I am sure a surgical strike is possible in and out and bring the loud mouth out alive to face crimes against humanity his own people. Make a video of him on his knees begging for his life. I am sure when El Chapo approached the prison walls his home for the rest of his life he broke down and cried like a baby. Then there was Noriega. Where there is a will there is a way. 

[Thaidream]

Indeed, I am also not a violent person but  Mr. Kim is shooting off his mouth much too often and is liable to get it slapped shut. Just the US arsenal in the Pacific Theatre could destroy North Korea and put Kim in the unemployment line or a grave. Should he even attempt to launch a nuclear weapon- North Korea would cease to exist as it is now.

The problem is that Kim can take a lot of other people in his own country; South Korea and possibly Japan down with him... I want to see Trump negotiate this one....but I am feeling more pessimistic by the day.

[dunroaming]

7 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Indeed, but a very powerful group of five accompanied, no doubt, by nuke subs... way above anything fatboy slim has.

And my penis is bigger than your penis although when it comes to Trump and Kim neither adds up to much.  Brainless fools indeed!

[Sphere]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Trump said: “He is doing the wrong thing.”

 

Yes, a very very bad bad man. 

 

[Thechook]

7 hours ago, quadperfect said:

I think kim will be fired by trump

 

 

Not sure.  Nth Korea gave the U.S a good spanking last time they met.

[Sunderland]

You would hope that Trump and China's Xi Jinping would have already discussed the possible methods and outcomes to deal with Crazy Kim in North Korea. It is not really in China's interests for the Korean peninsula to erupt into chaos, so surgically cutting off the head of the snake and chopping up the rest of the body (regime) as soon as possible is the only way to deal with the long running problem. Sure, North Koreans would be shocked at first at the removal of their beloved Crazy Kim, but it would not take long for them to learn the truth about their isolation from the rest of the world. Well ... we can hope.

 

 

[hawker9000]

So hey, Fat Boy!  I hear Big Brother just turned around your coal shipment.  And to add insult to injury, the US is now going to supply that coking coal to China!  Does that count as a "provocation"?

 

Go ahead you useless lump of protoplasm.  Reach for it.  Please.

 

 

Edited April 12, 2017 by hawker9000

[kowpot]

5 hours ago, dunroaming said:

And my penis is bigger than your penis although when it comes to Trump and Kim neither adds up to much.  Brainless fools indeed!

Do you think about other men's penis's alot?

[quadperfect]

N korea is in the stone age still.

At least compared to the usa.

But granted when my grandpa was fighting n koreans it was a even playing field. Bayonets and bullets.

Now its nuclear and the usa has the ability to destroy n korea w out a single loss of american ,s korean, japanese life.

But doing so will also kill innocents in n korea so i guess a few thousand americans need to die first.

Then america can go take him out just like bin laden.

But i think kim is on the highway to hell.

He has played the trump card and will lose.

 

[rooinekrsa]

7 hours ago, Thaidream said:

Indeed, I am also not a violent person but  Mr. Kim is shooting off his mouth much too often and is liable to get it slapped shut. Just the US arsenal in the Pacific Theatre could destroy North Korea and put Kim in the unemployment line or a grave. Should he even attempt to launch a nuclear weapon- North Korea would cease to exist as it is now.

The problem is that Kim can take a lot of other people in his own country; South Korea and possibly Japan down with him... I want to see Trump negotiate this one....but I am feeling more pessimistic by the day.

Hope the down wind don't affect my family 

 

 

 

[Retiredandhappyhere]

Fat boy in N.Korea, in threatening the USA with a nuclear attack, not only in his area but also on American soil, must have a death wish.  First of all, he needs a missile capable of reaching the States and then a nuclear device small enough to fit on the missile and enough of them to do some real damage. 

 

If he is not careful, by the time N.K.  has both the missile and the bomb, he could be sitting on a pile of rubble previously known as North Korea.   After the blast he might end up sitting in his bunker all alone, with a better hair style though, more like Ken Dodd's, and with no-one left to boss around or to execute.  

[bangkokbanjo]

Its all sabre rattling..but to play along he could choose a closer target like south korea or japan as they are us allies. All of this wont happen but these are some of the options

Sent from my SM-G920V using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[baboon]

2 hours ago, Retiredandhappyhere said:

Fat boy in N.Korea, in threatening the USA with a nuclear attack, not only in his area but also on American soil, must have a death wish.  First of all, he needs a missile capable of reaching the States and then a nuclear device small enough to fit on the missile and enough of them to do some real damage. 

 

If he is not careful, by the time N.K.  has both the missile and the bomb, he could be sitting on a pile of rubble previously known as North Korea.   After the blast he might end up sitting in his bunker all alone, with a better hair style though, more like Ken Dodd's, and with no-one left to boss around or to execute.  

That would show him, wouldn't it? I'm sure the relatives of the tens of thousands sacrificed will be there tittering along with you as the winds blow radioactive dust over what is left of their homes and lives.

[Beats56]

Read some news seal team 6 is in SK. 

Don't know if is true or not but if they are Kim better duck.

[funandsuninbangkok]

Anybody try that North Korean restaurant on Ekamai?

[ilostmypassword]

19 hours ago, Retiredandhappyhere said:

Fat boy in N.Korea, in threatening the USA with a nuclear attack, not only in his area but also on American soil, must have a death wish.  First of all, he needs a missile capable of reaching the States and then a nuclear device small enough to fit on the missile and enough of them to do some real damage. 

 

If he is not careful, by the time N.K.  has both the missile and the bomb, he could be sitting on a pile of rubble previously known as North Korea.   After the blast he might end up sitting in his bunker all alone, with a better hair style though, more like Ken Dodd's, and with no-one left to boss around or to execute.  

To kill lots of Americans he doesn't need to hit the USA. Just target US troops in South Korea.

[Guest]

19 hours ago, Retiredandhappyhere said:

Fat boy in N.Korea, in threatening the USA with a nuclear attack, not only in his area but also on American soil, must have a death wish.  First of all, he needs a missile capable of reaching the States and then a nuclear device small enough to fit on the missile and enough of them to do some real damage. 

 

Missiles or bombers are not the only way to deliver nuclear devices across the globe.

 

If I would be a crazy dictator, I would have placed 5-6 nukes in different cities. Plus one in remote location. That extra one would be there to demonstrate the power and to say "Stop your invasion or else". 

[the guest]

Seems the only thing Fatboy understands is a hard lesson in compliance. US and the alliance will no longer tolerate this behavior, and so the only solution is to strike at the heart of the country with missiles. Tactical strikes need to be powerful enough to disable the country, if necessary nuclear power if the deterrent is sufficient to disable their capability. They only have themselves to blame. 

[baboon]

6 minutes ago, the guest said:

Seems the only thing Fatboy understands is a hard lesson in compliance. US and the alliance will no longer tolerate this behavior, and so the only solution is to strike at the heart of the country with missiles. Tactical strikes need to be powerful enough to disable the country, if necessary nuclear power if the deterrent is sufficient to disable their capability. They only have themselves to blame. 

A hard lesson in compliance with what?

[Chip Allen]

NK may actually be crazy enough to mount a nuclear strike. In the long run, it would result in freedom for the North Korean people since it would not go unavenged and the upshot would be the fall of the little fat monster that rules NK.

[Grubster]

On 4/12/2017 at 3:02 PM, Thaidream said:

Indeed, I am also not a violent person but  Mr. Kim is shooting off his mouth much too often and is liable to get it slapped shut. Just the US arsenal in the Pacific Theatre could destroy North Korea and put Kim in the unemployment line or a grave. Should he even attempt to launch a nuclear weapon- North Korea would cease to exist as it is now.

The problem is that Kim can take a lot of other people in his own country; South Korea and possibly Japan down with him... I want to see Trump negotiate this one....but I am feeling more pessimistic by the day.

I doubt Kim could do much damage at all. His garbage would be shot out of the sky if it was anywhere near on target. Remember what they said about Iraq being the forth most powerful military in the world before the first Iraq war.  Yes Kim may have some crude nukes, but no way to deliver them.  That said the more they convince us of his power the more likely we are getting ready to strike.  Hard to do without China's blessing though, but maybe they will get the rebuild effort. Paid for by the west of course.

[Stargeezr]

Who knows what this crazy nut job in NK has buried around that country.  I do know that if the fat boy was removed, a lot of the people in NK would be happy. The problem is that  they are all too afraid to take him out themselves, as their whole families would likely be killed off. I believe that is the threat that is used by him and his minions to the country  Time for fat boy to leave, come on China, offer fat boy a nice house in China, let the people of NK decide their future without him.