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| North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho speaks to journalists as he leaves his hotel in New York on Sep. 25. The U.S. President Donald Trump has "declared a war" on North Korea, the country's foreign minister said Monday while conveying a threat to shoot down US bombers. "Trump claimed our leadership would not be around much longer," North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho told reporters outside his hotel in New York. "He declared a war on our country." / AFP-Yonhap |
North Korea's foreign minister said Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump has declared war against his country and Pyongyang will defend itself by shooting down American bombers if necessary.
In a Saturday tweet, Trump warned that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his regime "won't be around much longer."
"It is clearly a declaration of war because those were words by an incumbent American president," Ri Yong-ho told reporters in front of his New York hotel.
The minister, who was in the city to attend the U.N. General Assembly last week, cited Saturday's overfly of U.S. B-1B bombers in international airspace off North Korea's eastern coast.
"As long as the U.S. has declared war, from now on, even if U.S. strategic bombers don't fly into our airspace, we will hold all the rights to self-defense, including the right to shoot them down at a time of our discretion. We will see then who lasts longer," he said.
Last week saw an escalation in tensions between Washington and Pyongyang after Trump threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea in the event of an attack on the U.S or its allies.
Kim retorted that he would consider the "highest-level" countermeasures, which Ri then said could involve the most powerful detonation of a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.
On Saturday, the minister told the U.N. General Assembly that a strike on the U.S. mainland was "inevitable" as Trump called Kim "Little Rocket Man."
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"For the past few days, the U.N. and the international community earnestly wished that the North Korea-U.S. war of words would not lead to action," Ri said. "But last weekend, Trump ultimately declared war by saying again that our leadership will not last long."
The U.N. charter recognizes all member states' right to self-defense, he said.
Getting into his car, he told reporters that "all options" will be placed on the North Korean leadership's military operations table in the wake of Trump's "declaration of war."
The White House dismissed the charge.
"We've not declared war on North Korea. Frankly, the suggestion of that is absurd," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a press briefing.
The Pentagon responded in kind to Ri's remarks.
"If North Korea does not stop their provocative actions, we will make sure that we provide options to the president to deal with North Korea," Pentagon spokesman Col. Robert Manning told reporters.
North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test early this month. In recent weeks, it also launched a series of ballistic missiles, including two over Japan and two of intercontinental range.
Washington has repeatedly said all options, including a military strike, are on the table to deal with Pyongyang's threats.
Analysts say it is only a matter of time before the regime attains its goal of having a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
