Donald Trump is ‘Begging for war,’ North Korea says as U.S. prepares for aerial drill with South Korea
North Korea claimed Donald Trump was “begging for war” as the U.S. announced it would carry out the largest ever aerial drill with South Korea in the coming week.
The drill is scheduled to take place from December 4-8, in what North Korea’s ministry of foreign affairs suggested was a demonstration of the U.S.’ “nuclear war mania,” underlining previous comments made by the isolated nation that suggests the U.S. is attempting to provoke a nuclear attack, Bloomberg reported.
“Should the Korean peninsula and the world be embroiled in the crucible of nuclear war because of the reckless nuclear war mania of the U.S., the U.S. will have to accept full responsibility for it,” the Ministry of Foreign affairs said in a statement shared by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday.
As North Korea commented on the situation, White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster commented the threat from Pyongyang was “increasing every day.”
The drill, and North Korea’s subsequent comments on the move, comes just days following the launch of a missile by North Korea that reached a height of roughly 2,800 miles above the Earth (over 10 times higher than the International Space Station).
That launch prompted a comment by U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley that the North Korean regime would be “utterly destroyed” by a nuclear war – while stressing that was not the outcome the U.S. wanted.
“We have never sought war with North Korea, and still today we do not seek it,” Haley said during an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council this week.
“If war does come, it will be because of continued acts of aggression like we witnessed yesterday. And if war comes, make no mistake, the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed,” Haley added.
Neither the U.S. nor North Korea have shied away from fiery rhetoric as relations between the two nations become increasingly fraught.
For his part, President Donald Trump has warned that North Korean acts of aggression will be met with “fire and fury,” also referring to Kim Jong Un as “little rocket man” in a series of comments and tweets on the topic.