NORTH KOREA WARNS OF WAR WITH U.S. AND �PUPPET� SOUTH AS TRUMP MEETS WITH KOREAN LEADER.
North Korea has warned of dire, destructive consequences to the increased collaboration
between its southern rival and the U.S., which received South Korea�s recently elected
leader Thursday in hopes of aligning the two nation�s efforts to dismantle Pyongyang�s
nuclear weapons and missile program.
North Korea�s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), a daily outlet for the views
of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un�s government, cited Thursday a spokesperson for Pyongyang�s
National Peace Committee of Korea in criticizing �South Korean puppet military warmongers�
who he said were provoking their northern neighbor�s armed forces with a series of
recent military drills conducted alongside U.S. President Donald Trump.
The U.S. has sent two carrier strike groups and bolstered military assets in the region
in order to increase military and political pressure on Kim to abandon his nuclear ambitions.
In another KCNA piece, the agency blasted the U.S.�South Korea exercises as well as
what it considered inflammatory remarks by South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
�This is just a risky and reckless military move driving the already acute situation on
the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war, and a blatant challenge to all Koreans
and other peace-loving peoples in the world aspiring after peace and security on the peninsula�
the article read, later attacking U.S. military moves in the region.
�The Trump administration should not run riot, thinking twice about the catastrophic
consequences to be entailed by its foolhardy military moves.
It should properly understand the spirit and will of the Korean army and people to annihilate
the enemy and finally conclude the standoff with the U.S.,� KCNA concluded.
North Korea regularly asserts its right to possess nuclear weapons and develop intercontinental
ballistic missiles (ICBM), arguing that these military assets are necessary to prevent foreign
powers like the U.S. from invading and overthrowing Kim�s administration.
The militarized state�s pursuit of these technologies, however, has led the U.S. and
even sympathetic nations such as China and Russia to support U.N. Security Council sanctions
against North Korea.
The U.S. has taken its threats a step farther and has publicly considered taking military
action to prevent its longtime Asian foe from conducting a sixth nuclear weapons test.
Trump first approached Chinese President Xi Jinping in an attempt to convince North Korea�s
greatest ally to exert its leverage and convince its neighbor to disarm its nuclear and ballistic
missile program.
While Trump has acknowledged China�s efforts, following the death of U.S. student Otto Warmbier
shortly after his release from North Korean prison.
the president said last week that �it had not worked out.� Warmbier had reportedly
fallen into a coma not long after his trial and imprisonment for allegedly stealing a
sign bearing a political slogan during a visit to North Korea last year and never woke up.
A senior White House official said Wednesday that China had �had fallen far short of
expectations� in dealing with North Korea.
In the U.S.�s latest attempt to turn up the heat on North Korea, Trump was scheduled
to meet with Moon for the first time Thursday.
Moon, who was elected last month after his predecessor was arrested in a corruption scandal,
distanced himself from the conservative views of the former South Korean administration,
but he has recently embraced a more militant stance toward North Korea, with which his
country has technically remained at war since the 1950s.
While Moon has pushed back on certain measures regarding the installation of the U.S.�s
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in his country, which
was expedited before he took office, Moon said only days into his administration that
there was a �high possibility� of conflict with North Korea.
While North Korea is not yet believed to have the capacity to produce an ICBM, much less
fit it with a nuclear warhead, analysts have said that the country could begin testing
such projectiles as soon as the end of this year.
North Korea is estimated to possess up to 20 nuclear weapons and an extensive arsenal
of ballistic missiles, all capable of striking nearby countries.
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