Tag Archives: Threat

South Korea seeks bigger warheads, North Korean ICBM reportedly on the move

South Korean troops fire Hyunmoo Missile into the waters of the East Sea at a military exercise in South Korea September 4, 2017. Defense Ministry/Yonhap/via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. SOUTH KOREA OUT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE.

By Christine Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea said on Tuesday an agreement with the United States to scrap a weight limit on its warheads would help it respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat after it conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test two days ago.

South Korean officials believe more weapons tests by the reclusive state are possible, despite international outrage over Sunday’s nuclear test and calls for more sanctions against it.

South Korea’s Asia Business Daily, citing an unidentified source, reported that North Korea had been observed moving a rocket that appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) towards its west coast.

The rocket started moving on Monday and was spotted moving only at night to avoid surveillance, the newspaper said.

South Korea’s defense ministry, which warned on Monday that North Korea was ready to launch an ICBM at any time, said it was not able to confirm the report.

Analysts and South Korean policymakers believe North Korea may test another weapon on or around Sept. 9, when it celebrates its founding day.

North Korea’s fifth nuclear test fell on that date last year, reflecting its tendency to conduct weapons tests on significant dates.

North Korea says it needs to develop its weapons to defend itself against what it sees as U.S. aggression.

South Korea, after weeks of rising tension, is talking to the United States about deploying aircraft carriers and strategic bombers to the Korean peninsula, and has been ramping up its own defenses.

U.S. President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, agreed on Monday to scrap a warhead weight limit on South Korea’s missiles, South Korea’s presidential office said, enabling it to strike North Korea with greater force in the event of war.

The White House said Trump gave “in-principle approval” to the move.

The United States and South Korea signed a pact in 1979, a year after the South successfully tested a ballistic missile, with Washington expressing the need for limits on ballistic missile capability over concern that tests could undermine regional security.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Both sides have thousands of rockets and artillery pieces aimed at each other across the world’s most heavily armed border, but the North’s rapid development of nuclear weapons and missiles has altered the balance, requiring a stronger response from South Korea, officials say.

“We believe the unlimited warhead payload will be useful in responding to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats,” South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a briefing.

Under current guidelines, last changed in 2012, South Korea can develop missiles up to a range of 800 km (500 miles) with a maximum payload of 500 kg (1,102 lb).

Most of North Korea’s missiles are designed to carry payloads of 100-1,000 kg (220-2,205 lb), according to Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a U.S.-based think thank.

‘BEGGING FOR WAR’

South Korea’s navy held more exercises on Tuesday, a naval officer told a defense ministry briefing. .

“Today’s training is being held to prepare for maritime North Korean provocations, inspect our navy’s readiness and to reaffirm our will to punish the enemy,” the official said.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Monday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was “begging for war” and urged the 15-member Security Council to impose the “strongest possible” sanctions to deter him and shut down his trading partners.

Haley said the United States would circulate a new Security Council resolution on North Korea this week and wanted a vote on it on Monday.

Trump has repeatedly warned that “all options were on the table” regarding North Korea, including military options.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said threats of military action were counterproductive.

“Russia condemns North Korea’s exercises, we consider that they are a provocation,” Putin told reporters after a summit of the BRICS countries in China.

“(But) ramping up military hysteria will lead to nothing good. It could lead to a global catastrophe.

While referring to more sanctions as a “road to nowhere”, Putin said Russia was prepared to discuss “some details” around the issue. He did not elaborate.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said she believed her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, was open to more sanctions.

“I cannot tell you exact details as the minister asked me not to disclose the content of our discussion, but I could sense that China could be open to more sanctions,” Kang told lawmakers in parliament, referring to a phone call with Wang on Monday.

China’s foreign ministry said it would take part in security council discussions in “a responsible and constructive manner”.

Diplomats have said the Security Council could consider banning North Korean textile exports, banish its national airline and stopping supplies of oil to the government and military.

Other measures could include preventing North Koreans from working abroad and adding top officials to a blacklist aiming at imposing asset freezes and travel bans.

Sanctions imposed after missile tests in July were aimed at slashing North Korea’s $3 billion annual export revenue by a third by banning exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood.

China accounted for 92 percent of North Korea’s trade in 2016, according to South Korea’s government trade promotion agency.

For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010031V7472/index.html

(Reporting by Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Dennis Pinchuk in XIAMEN, China, Christian Shepherd in BEIJING, Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS and Tim Ahmann and David Shepardson in WASHINGTON; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel)

In photos, North Korea signals a more powerful ICBM in the works

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un looks on during a visit to the Chemical Material Institute of the Academy of Defense Science in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang on August 23, 2017. KCNA/via REUTERS

By Jack Kim and Heekyong Yang

SEOUL (Reuters) – With photographs obliquely showing a new rocket design, North Korea has sent a message that it is working on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) more powerful than any it has previously tested, weapons experts said on Thursday.

If developed, such a missile could possibly reach any place on the U.S. mainland, including Washington and New York, they said.

North Korea’s state media published photographs late on Wednesday of leader Kim Jong Un standing next to a diagram of a three-stage rocket it called the Hwasong-13.

Missile experts, who carefully examine such pictures for clues about North Korea’s weapons programs, said there is no indication that the rocket has been fully developed. In any case, it had not been flight tested and it was impossible to calculate its potential range, they said.

However, a three-stage rocket would be more powerful than the two-stage Hwasong-14 ICBM tested on two occasions in July, they said. South Korean and U.S. officials and experts have said the Hwasong-14 possibly had a range of about 10,000 km (6,200 miles) and could strike many parts of the United States, but not the East Coast.

“We should be looking at Hwasong-13 as a 12,000-km class ICBM that can strike all of the mainland United States,” said Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

A distance in excess of 11,000 km (6,800 miles) will put Washington and New York within range from anywhere in North Korea.

“It’s likely meant to show that they are working on a three-stage design with greater boost and range,” said retired Brigadier General Moon Sung-muk, an arms control expert who has represented South Korea in military talks with the North.

“They tested the Hwasong-14 which has an estimated range of 9,000 km, 10,000 km. This one can go further, is the message,” he said.

TENSIONS EASE

Pyongyang’s intentions in showing plans for the new missile were clear, the experts said. The photographs were accompanied by a report of Kim issuing instructions for the production of more rocket engines and warheads during a visit to the Academy of Defense Sciences, an agency he has set up to develop ballistic missiles.

“We’re getting a look at it to emphasize domestic production of missiles, and to advertise what’s coming next,” said Joshua Pollack, a nuclear weapon and missile systems expert who edits the U.S.-based Nonproliferation Review.

The photographs were published as tensions between North Korea and the United States appeared to have eased slightly after the isolated nation tested the Hwasong-14 and later threatened to fire missiles toward the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

Wednesday’s report carried by the KCNA news agency lacked the traditionally robust threats against the United States, and U.S. President Donald Trump expressed optimism about a possible improvement in relations.

Kim, the expert at Kyungnam University, said from the design standpoint, Hwasong-13 was similar to the KN-08, a three-stage missile of which only a mockup has previously been seen at military parades. But the new images show a modified design for the main booster stage that clusters two engines.

Another picture published by North Korean state media showed Kim Jong Un standing next to a rocket casing that appeared to be made of a material that could include plastic. Experts said if such material were used in the missile, it would be intended to reduce weight and boost range.

The photographs also showed the design for the Pukguksong-3, likely a new solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile being developed for submarine launches.

Moon, the former South Korean general, said the pictures were intended to show that the North was refusing to bow to international pressure to call off its weapons programs.

“The North is trying to be in control of the playing field,” Moon said.

For a graphic on North Korean missile ranges, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010041L63FE/index.html

(Additional reporting by James Pearson and Christine Kim; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Iran says can produce highly enriched uranium in days if U.S. quits deal

FILE PHOTO: Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi attends the lecture "Iran after the agreement: Hopes & Concerns" in Vienna, Austria, September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) – Iran can resume production of highly enriched uranium within five days if the nuclear deal it struck with world powers in 2015 is revoked, Iran’s atomic chief was quoted by state media as saying on Tuesday.

The deal that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani championed with the United States, Russia, China and three European powers led to the lifting of most sanctions against Tehran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

Rouhani has intensified efforts to protect the deal, also known by its acronym JCPOA, against Washington’s return to an aggressive Iran policy, after U.S. President Donald Trump approved new sanctions on Tehran.

Rouhani warned last week that Iran could abandon the nuclear agreement “within hours” if the United States imposes any more new sanctions.

“The president’s warning was not baseless,” Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday.

“If we decide, we can reach 20 percent (uranium) enrichment within five days in Fordow (underground nuclear plant),” he added.

However, Salehi who was reappointed this month as vice president and the head of the Atomic Energy Organization, said his main priority would be to protect the JCPOA.

Following the nuclear deal, Iran drastically reduced the number of centrifuges – machines that enrich uranium – installed at Fordow, and kept just over 1,000 there for research purposes.

The JCPOA states that no enrichment is permitted at Fordow for 15 years.

Uranium enriched to a high level can be used to make an atomic bomb. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on six Iranian firms in late July for their role in the development of a ballistic missile program after Tehran launched a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit.

Trump also signed in August a U.S. Senate bill that imposed sanctions on Iran, Russia, and North Korea.

Iran says new U.S. sanctions breach the JCPOA but the United States says they were unrelated to the deal.

During his election campaign Trump called the deal a “disaster” and “the worst deal ever negotiated”. This month he said he did not believe Iran was living up to the deal’s spirit.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Venezuela’s Maduro calls for military exercises after Trump threat

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro stands next to a sign that reads "Trump go away from Latin America" gives a speech at a rally against U.S President Donald Trump in Caracas, Venezuela August 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

By Brian Ellsworth and Hugh Bronstein

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday called for military exercises after U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat of a possible armed intervention in the country, but Maduro insisted he still wanted to hold talks with the U.S. leader.

As Maduro told supporters in Caracas to prepare for an “imperialist” invasion, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence sought to calm concerns in the region about Trump’s talk, promising a peaceful solution to Venezuela’s “collapse into dictatorship.”

The unpopular Maduro, struggling with a disintegrating economy at home and increasing diplomatic isolation abroad, has used Trump’s comments on Friday to reaffirm long-standing accusations that Washington is preparing a military attack.

“Everyone has to join the defense plan, millions of men and women, let’s see how the American imperialists like it,” Maduro told supporters, urging them to join the two-day operation on Aug 26 and 27 involving both soldiers and civilians.

Thousands of government supporters rallied in Caracas where they denounced Trump’s suggestion of a “military option” to resolve Venezuela’s crisis.

Over 120 people have been killed since anti-government protests began in April, driven by outrage over shortages of food and medicine and Maduro’s creation of a legislative superbody that governments around the world say is dictatorial.

Maduro said Trump’s advisors had confused him about the true situation in Venezuela.

“I want to talk by phone with Mr. Trump, to tell him ‘They’re fooling you, Trump, everything they tell you about Venezuela is a lie. They’re throwing you off a cliff.'”

The White House last week rebuffed Maduro’s request to speak to Trump, saying the president would talk with Venezuela’s leader when the country returned to democracy.

‘FAILED STATE’

Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino appeared in a televised broadcast with dozens of battle-ready troops behind him at an army base, including soldiers with shoulder-fired missile launchers pointed skyward.

In a speech, he warned that the United States wanted to steal the OPEC nation’s oil reserves.

Late socialist leader Hugo Chavez frequently staged military exercises during his 14-year rule, many of which involved defending the country against mock foreign armies.

Critics generally dismissed them as bravado meant to distract from problems at home.

Venezuela’s opposition coalition on Sunday rejected foreign threats to the country. It did not specifically identify Trump or the United States, but criticized Maduro’s close relationship with Communist-run Cuba.

Vice President Pence said the United States would bring economic and diplomatic power to restore democracy in Venezuela.

“A failed state in Venezuela threatens the security and prosperity of our entire hemisphere and the people of the United States of America,” said Pence, speaking to reporters in the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena.

“The regime is experiencing change right now and what we’re witnessing is Venezuela is collapsing into dictatorship.”

Countries across Latin America, where the United States flexed its military muscles throughout the 20th century, rejected Trump’s comments and said U.S. intervention was unwelcome.

On Sunday night, in an apparent effort to ease alarm, Pence said the United States was confident that a peaceful solution could be found to the country’s political and economic crises.

The country last month, at Maduro’s behest, elected a “constituent assembly” with sweeping powers including the capacity to rewrite the constitution. Maduro says the assembly will bring peace to the country.

His adversaries boycotted the election, calling it a power grab meant to keep the ruling Socialist Party in power and insisting it will do nothing to tame soaring inflation or resolve food and medicine shortages.

(Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann in Washington and Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota, Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Andrew Hay)

North Korea details plan to fire missiles over Japan, near Guam

A view shows a Pyongyang city mass rally held at Kim Il Sung Square on August 9, 2017, to fully support the statement of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) government in this photo released on August 10, 2017 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. KCNA/via REUTERS

By Christine Kim and Martin Petty

SEOUL/GUAM (Reuters) – North Korea said on Thursday it was completing plans to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam in an unusually detailed threat that further heightened tensions with the United States.

North Korea’s army will complete the plans in mid-August, when they will be ready for leader Kim Jong Un’s order, state-run KCNA news agency reported, citing General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army. The plans called for the missiles to land in the sea only 30-40 km (18-25 miles) from Guam.

The reclusive communist country, technically still at war with the United States and South Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty, is known for making bellicose threats.

But experts in the United States and South Korea said North Korea’s plans ratcheted up risks significantly, since Washington was likely to view any missile aimed at its territory as a provocation, even if launched as a test. North Korea has carried out a series of missile and nuclear bomb tests in defiance of the international community.

North Korea announced the plans following U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on Tuesday that any threats by Pyongyang would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” remarks that KCNA called “a load of nonsense.”

North Korea’s apparently rapid progress in developing nuclear weapons and missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland has fueled tensions that erupted into a war of words between Washington and Pyongyang this week, unnerving regional powers and global investors.

World stocks fell for a third day, with shares in Seoul slumping to a seven-week low.

The rising tensions between North Korea and the United States — the biggest foreign policy crisis Trump has faced in his six-month-old presidency — spurred a broad market sell-off in U.S. stocks. By midday, the benchmark S&P 500 stock index <.SPX> fell 1 percent. The index has had just two days so far this year where it has closed with losses of more than 1 percent.

If Pyongyang carries out its threat and launches missiles toward Guam, it would represent an unprecedented milestone in the already fraught relations between the United States and North Korea.

As announced by North Korea, which added detail to a plan first unveiled on Wednesday, the planned path of the missiles would cross some of the world’s busiest sea and air traffic routes.

Guam, a tropical island more than 3,000 km (2,000 miles) to the southeast of North Korea, is home to about 163,000 people and a U.S. air base, Navy installation that includes a submarine squadron, a Coast Guard group and roughly 6,000 U.S. military service members.

“The Hwasong-12 rockets to be launched by the KPA (Korean People’s Army) will cross the sky above Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi Prefectures of Japan,” the North Korean report said. “They will fly 3,356.7 km (2,085.8 miles) for 1,065 seconds and hit the waters 30 to 40 km away from Guam.” The report did not mention any threat of the use of nuclear missiles near Guam.

“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him,” KCNA said of Trump.

Speaking to reporters in to New Jersey, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said that “certainly nothing has changed in the president’s thinking” on North Korea given the latest developments. The White House said Trump would receive a security briefing later in the day.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a key Republican voice on foreign policy, said that based on his conversations with Trump he believes the president would be willing to launch a pre-emptive strike to prevent Pyongyang from launching a nuclear attack on the U.S. homeland.

“If negotiations fail, he is willing to abandon ‘strategic patience’ and use pre-emption,” Graham said of Trump during an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I think he’s there mentally. He has told me this.”

“So I’m 100 percent confident that if President Trump had to use military force to deny the North Koreans the capability to strike America with a nuclear-tipped missile, he would do that,” Graham added.

Korea expert and former CIA analyst Robert Carlin, a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, said announcing a specific target was unusual for North Korea, although it had previously mentioned targeting specific South Korean military facilities.

“We’ve seen them talk in specific terms before, just not something as sensitive … as an American military base,” Carlin said.

For an interactive graphic on North Korea’s missile capabilities – http://tmsnrt.rs/2t6WEPL

Graphic on North Korean missile trajectories – http://tmsnrt.rs/2vLMdVm

‘ENJOY THE BEACHES’

Visitors and residents on Guam appeared to be taking things in their stride. The main beach front on the island was packed with tourists dozing under trees or on the sun loungers of five-star hotels lined up before a calm sea.

Governor Eddie Calvo said Guam had experienced a Japanese invasion in World War Two and countless earthquakes and super-typhoons, and there was no U.S. community better prepared to meet the North Korean threat.

“We are concerned about these threats but at the same time we also want to make sure people don’t panic and go on with their lives. Enjoy the beaches,” Calvo said.

Major airlines that fly over the region said they had so far made no plans to change flight paths.

The U.S. Seventh Fleet currently has six Aegis ballistic missile defense ships in the region capable of targeting North Korean missiles, and Japan has a further four. Guam also has a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, similar to one recently installed in South Korea.

Japan could legally intercept a North Korean missile headed towards Guam, its defense minister said on Thursday, but experts believe Japan does not currently have the capability to do so.

Angered as the United States and its allies ignore Chinese calls to calm tensions over North Korea, and distracted by domestic concerns, China is largely sitting out the crisis.

Tension in the region has risen since North Korea carried out two nuclear bomb tests last year and the intercontinental missile tests, all in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Trump has said he will not allow Pyongyang to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States.

Washington has warned it is ready to use force if needed to stop North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs but that it prefers global diplomatic action. The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday.

(Additional reporting by Daniel Bases in New York, David Brunnstrom in Washington, Soyoung Kim in Seoul, William Mallard, Tim Kelly, Kiyoshi Takenaka and Linda Sieg in Tokyo, Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina in Beijing, Jamie Freed in Singapore and John Ruwitch in Shanghai; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Will Dunham; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alistair Bell)

Islamic State threatens new attacks in Iran in video

(Reuters) – Islamic State issued a video on Wednesday threatening new attacks in the Iranian capital Tehran and calling on young Iranians to rise up and launch jihad in their country.

A man wearing a black ski mask and holding an AK-47, seated alongside two others, made the threat in a video bearing the Islamic State’s Amaq news agency logo and showing footage of two attacks in Tehran in June claimed by the militant group.

“The same way we are cutting the necks of your dogs in Iraq and Syria we will cut your necks in the center of Tehran,” the man said, speaking accented Farsi.

Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim group which has sought to establish a caliphate in parts of the Gulf but is now under pressure from national armies and international groups in Syria and Iraq, sees Iran, which is predominantly Shi’ite, as one of its biggest enemies in the region.

The group killed at least 18 people in attacks on parliament in Tehran and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini on June 7.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards fired several missiles at Islamic State bases in Syria on June 18 in response to that attack. Iranian officials have also announced the arrests of dozens allegedly linked to the attacks.

Another portion of the video showed militants in black ski masks speaking out against Shi’ites in Arabic and threatening attacks against them in Iraq.

(Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

North Korea considers missile strike on Guam after Trump’s ‘fire and fury’ warning

North Korea considers missile strike on Guam after Trump's 'fire and fury' warning

By Maureen N. Maratita and Christine Kim

GUAM/SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea said on Wednesday it is considering plans for a missile strike on the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, just hours after President Donald Trump told the North that any threat to the United States would be met with “fire and fury”.

The sharp increase in tensions rattled financial markets and prompted warnings from U.S. officials and analysts not to engage in rhetorical slanging matches with North Korea, which regularly threatens to destroy the United States.

North Korea said it was “carefully examining” a plan to strike Guam, which is home to about 163,000 people and a U.S. military base that includes a submarine squadron, an airbase and a Coast Guard group.

A Korean People’s Army spokesman said in a statement carried by state-run KCNA news agency the plan would be put into practice at any moment, once leader Kim Jong Un made a decision.

Guam Governor Eddie Calvo dismissed the threat and said the island was prepared for “any eventuality” with strategically placed defenses. He said he had been in touch with the White House and there was no change in the threat level.

“Guam is American soil … We are not just a military installation,” Calvo said in an online video message.

North Korea, which is pursuing missile and nuclear weapons programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, also accused the United States of devising a “preventive war” and said in another statement that any plans to execute this would be met with an “all-out war, wiping out all the strongholds of enemies, including the U.S. mainland”.

Washington has warned it is ready to use force if needed to stop North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs but that it prefers global diplomatic action, including sanctions. The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday.

Trump issued his strongest warning yet for North Korea in comments to reporters in New Jersey on Tuesday.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump said.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, before landing in Guam on a pre-arranged visit, said Trump was trying to send a strong message.

“So I think the president, what the president is doing, is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un would understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language,” Tillerson told reporters.

Just moments after Tillerson’s remarks were reported, Trump hammered home his tough talk in a Twitter post about the U.S. nuclear arsenal, in what looked like another warning to North Korea.

“My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal,” he said. “It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.”

China, North Korea’s closest ally despite Beijing’s anger at Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs, described the situation as “complex and sensitive”, and urged calm and a return to talks.

“China calls on all sides to uphold the main direction of a political resolution to the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, and avoid any words or actions that may intensify the problem and escalate the situation,” it said in a statement sent to Reuters, repeating its customary stance.

“‘BLACK SWAN’ EVENT”

North Korea has made no secret of its plans to develop a nuclear-tipped missile able to strike the United States and has ignored all calls to halt its weapons programs.

Pyongyang says its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are a legitimate means of defense against perceived U.S. hostility, including joint military drills with South Korea.

The standoff drove investors out of stocks on Wednesday and into the safety of the yen, Swiss franc, gold and government debt. South Korea’s benchmark index <.KS11> and Japan’s Nikkei <.N225> both closed down more than 1 percent. [MKTS/GLOB]

“Tensions will continue to mount and could eventually develop into a ‘black swan’ event that the markets are not prudently considering,” Steve Hanke, professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University, told the Reuters Global Markets Forum.

South Korea and the United States remain technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

The South Korean capital, Seoul, is home to roughly 10 million people and within range of massed North Korean rockets and artillery, which would be impossible to destroy in a first U.S. strike.

Tens of thousands of U.S. troops remain stationed in South Korea and in nearby Japan, the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons. Wednesday marked the 72nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city of Nagasaki by the United States.

“WAR, WAR, WAR”

A senior official at South Korea’s presidential Blue House rejected talk of a crisis on the Korean peninsula, saying Seoul saw a high possibility of resolving the issue peacefully.

North Korea needed to realize its provocations are making the country more isolated and it should respond to the South’s proposal for dialogue, the official said.

In Dandong, a Chinese trading hub across the border from North Korea, residents said they were unperturbed by the escalating rhetoric.

“North Korea always talks about war, war, war, but it never happens,” said a restaurant owner who asked to be identified only by her surname, Yang.

“We now live in peaceful times. But if war does break out it will be us ordinary people that suffer.”

Tension in the region has risen since North Korea carried out two nuclear bomb tests last year and two ICBM tests in July.

Japanese fighters conducted joint air drills with U.S. supersonic bombers in Japanese skies close to the Korean peninsula on Tuesday, Japan’s Air Self Defence Force said.

On Monday, two U.S. B-1 bombers flew from Guam over the Korean peninsula as part of its “continuous bomber presence”, a U.S. official said, in a sign of the island’s strategic importance.

DEEPLY TROUBLING

Guam, popular with Japanese and South Korean tourists, is protected by the advanced U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, deployed in South Korea.

“I know they’ve not been successful,” Vilma Quichocho, a treasurer at Guam’s Department of Administration, said of previous attempts to launch missiles from North Korea. “But now they’re talking about nuclear warheads and it’s kind of scary.”

Madeleine Z. Bordallo, the U.S. Congresswoman for Guam, said she was confident U.S. forces could protect it from the “deeply troubling” North Korean nuclear threat. She called on Trump to show “steady leadership” and work with the international community to lower tension.

Seoul resident Kim Sung-un, 29, said North Korea tended to make a lot of threats about missile attacks, but did not follow through.

“So I am leaning toward going to Guam, but also at the same time, I can’t help feeling anxious about it,” she said.

Republican U.S. Senator John McCain said Trump should tread cautiously when issuing threats, unless he is prepared to act.

“I take exception to the president’s comments because you’ve got to be sure you can do what you say you’re going to do,” he said in a radio interview.

Former U.S. diplomat Douglas Paal, now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank in Washington, said Trump should not get into a war of words with Pyongyang.

“It strikes me as an amateurish reflection of a belief that we should give as we get rhetorically. That might be satisfying at one level, but it takes us down into the mud that we should let Pyongyang enjoy alone,” said Paal, who served as a White House official under previous Republican administrations.

In a small show of goodwill, North Korea said on Wednesday it had released a Canadian pastor serving a life sentence there on humanitarian grounds.

There was no obvious direct connection between the release and the standoff with the United States, but North Korea has in the past attracted the attention of Washington, and visits by high-profile Americans, with the detention and release of U.S. citizens.

(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in SEOUL, Amy Miyazaki, Linda Sieg and Tim Kelly in TOKYO, Philip Wen in DANDONG, Martin Petty in MANILA, James Oliphant, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, John Walcott, Idrees Ali and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON, Rodrigo Campos in NEW YORK, and Divya Chowdhury in MUMBAI; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)

North Korea ready to teach U.S. ‘severe lesson’, says U.N. abused its authority

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho (C) walks toward an escalator during ongoing meetings at the Philippine International Convention Center

MANILA (Reuters) – North Korea is ready to give the United States a “severe lesson” with its strategic nuclear force if it takes military action against it, and will not put its nuclear program or its missiles on the negotiating table, it said in a statement to a regional meeting on Monday.

In a transcript of a statement by Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, which was distributed to media in Manila, Pyongyang called new U.N. sanctions “fabricated” and warned there would be “strong follow-up measures” and acts of justice. It said the resolution showed the United Nations had abused its authority.

It said its intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July proved that the entire United States was in its firing range, and those missiles were a legitimate means of self-defense.

It was not immediately clear whether the statement was read to the ASEAN Regional Forum on Monday.

 

 

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Manolo Serapio Jr; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

Trump says Iran complying with nuclear deal but remains dangerous threat

FILE PHOTO: Iran's national flags are seen on a square in Tehran February 10, 2012, a day before the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl/File Photo

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday declared that Iran was complying with its nuclear agreement with world powers, but warned that Tehran was in default of the spirit of the accord and that Washington would look for ways to strengthen it.

It was the second time Trump certified Iranian compliance with the agreement since he took office in January, despite criticizing it during the 2016 campaign as “the worst deal ever.”

Trump administration officials, briefing reporters on Monday on the decision, said new economic sanctions against Iran were being prepared over its ballistic missile program and for contributing to regional tensions.

Under U.S. law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran’s compliance with the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Trump had faced a congressionally mandated deadline of Monday to decide.

A senior administration official said Iran was judged in compliance of the 2015 nuclear deal but that Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson believed Iran “remains one of the most dangerous threats to U.S. interests and to regional stability.”

The official ticked off a list of accusations about Iranian behavior in the region, including ballistic missile development and proliferation, support for terrorism and militancy, complicity in atrocities committed in Syria and threats to Gulf waterways.

“The president and the secretary of state judge that these Iranian activities severely undermine the intent of the JCPOA, which was to contribute to regional and international peace and security. As a result, the president, the secretary of state and the entire administration judge that Iran is unquestionably in default of the spirit of the JCPOA,” the official said.

‘TOTALITY OF BEHAVIOR’

The landmark deal struck with Iran by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany is aimed at preventing Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon by imposing time-limited restrictions and strict international monitoring on its nuclear program. In return, Tehran won relief from punishing international economic sanctions.

Iran denies seeking nuclear arms. The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, concluded in December 2015, however, that Iran worked on the design of a missile-borne nuclear warhead until 2009.

While lifting nuclear-linked sanctions, the United States maintains sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program, human rights record and what Washington charges is its support for international terrorism.

The senior administration official said the Trump administration intended to employ a strategy that would “address the totality of Iran’s malign behavior” and not just focus on the Iran nuclear agreement.

The administration is also looking at ways to strengthen the nuclear deal and more strictly enforce it, the official said, citing concerns that the deal over time would let Iran openly pursue industrial-scale nuclear fuel enrichment.

“We’re in a period where we’re going to be working with our allies to explore options for addressing the JCPOA’s flaws, which there are many,” the official said.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)