A North Korea official said the rogue regime has no plans to engage in diplomacy over its weapons program until Pyongyang develops an intercontinental ballistic capable of striking the “East coast of the mainland US,” according to a report on Monday.
President Kim Jong Un’s government is not entirely ruling out a diplomatic solution, but “before we can engage in diplomacy with the Trump administration, we want to send a clear message that [North Korea] has a reliable defensive and offensive capability to counter any aggression from the United States,” the official said, according to CNN.
While the US is preparing military options to deal with an attack by North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday said the administration will continue to pursue a diplomatic solution, saying the “efforts will continue until the first bomb drops.”
The comments come as US and South Korean forces begin conducting military exercises just days after Pyongyang renewed a threat to launch missiles at Guam, an American territory in the Pacific.
The five days of drills in the waters off the Korean peninsula involve fighter jets, helicopters and about 40 ships and submarines.
The exercises are intended as a rehearsal on how to respond to a naval attack by North Korea and to improve the two countries’ operational capability, South Korean navy spokesman Jang Wook said, according to the Associated Press.
The exercises will also include live-fire drills by ships and aircraft, as well as anti-submarine training.
Next week, the US military will begin practicing how to evacuate the families of American military personnel and noncombatants in South Korea in the event of an attack by North Korea or an emergency in the region, reports said.
The twice-a-year exercises, known as Courageous Channel, are not in response to the rising military provocations from Kim’s regime.
“Like other annual training exercises here on the peninsula, Courageous Channel sharpens our ability to stay ready across our spectrum of tasks,” US military spokesman Col. Chad Carroll told Stars and Stripes. “This year’s exercise is not uniquely connected to any specific elements of the current geopolitical situation.”
North Korea, which views the joint military exercises as a prelude to an invasion, said the US was trying to provoke a response from Pyongyang and reiterated its threat to strike Guam.
“Such military acts compel (North Korea) to take military counteraction,” Kim Kwang Hak, a researcher at North Korea’s foreign ministry, said on Friday. “We have already warned several times that we will take counteractions for self-defense, including a salvo of missiles into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam.”
Kim’s government, which is under punishing sanctions imposed by the United Nations, has been test-firing intercontinental ballistic missiles that have the capability of striking the US mainland. It also detonated a nuclear device.
Trump, who has referred to Kim as “Rocket Man,” vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea in defense of the US or its allies.
Pyongyang called Trump a “war merchant and strangler of peace” on Sunday and accused him of selling weapons to Japan and South Korea.
While the US is preparing military options to deal with North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday said the administration is working on a diplomatic solution to the standoff, saying the “efforts will continue until the first bomb drops.”
With Post Wires