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| North Korean leader Kim Jong-un supervised the test-firing of a "newly developed" weapon on Aug. 24, 2019, state media reported the next day. Yonhap |
By Jane Han
SEATTLE ― Christmas has come and gone, but North Korea has yet to carry through on its ominous threat of a "Christmas gift" to the U.S. And the late delivery has Americans wondering.
"I'm not horribly worried, but just curious why North Korea didn't do a missile test or something of that sort," said Peyton Parker, 43, a software engineer, while ordering coffee at a Starbucks in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle. "Is there something else coming?"
Another tech worker out on lunch break said it was not concern, but curiosity.
"It's not like I'm constantly thinking about it or anything, but when I skim through the news, I do wonder what happened to that gift," said Ram Singh, 38. "Is it coming or not?"
Earlier this month, a top North Korean diplomat in charge of U.S. affairs said, "It is entirely up to the U.S. on what Christmas gift it will decide to get." Pyongyang has repeatedly called on the U.S. to lift sanctions before the end of the year.
Despite the warning, U.S. President Donald Trump played down the dictator's comment.
"Maybe it's a nice present," Trump told reporters. "Maybe it's a present where he sends me a beautiful vase instead of a missile test."
The threat had built up anticipation in the U.S. until Christmas day, with hashtag #northkoreachristmasgift featuring jokes about a nuclear attack on the U.S. trending on Twitter all day on Dec. 25.
But now that the deadline has passed, jitters have fizzled into just curiosity.
"Orthodox Christmas isn't until Jan. 7 so technically time isn't up yet," said a public school teacher who did not want to be named.
Another user online named Alex Rubinstein agreed, "It's 12 days of Christmas. I'd keep a close eye on him," referring to the end of Christmas season as Jan. 7.
With curiosity aside, many Americans expressed confidence over fear even if the "delivery" did follow through.
"If that gift is in the form of an attack, there will be no more North Korea left," wrote Jennifer Zahn on a news forum.
Another person wrote, "Certainly with speed, U.S. will retaliate and respond with an even bigger gift."
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