{"id":29710,"date":"2017-11-08T13:51:13","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T08:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=29710"},"modified":"2017-11-08T13:51:13","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T08:51:13","slug":"trump-issues-stark-warning-to-north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=29710","title":{"rendered":"Trump issues stark warning to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SEOUL Nov 08 (TNS):<\/strong> US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday, telling him that the nuclear weapons he is developing \u201care not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo not underestimate us and do not try us,\u201d Trump told North Korea as he wrapped up a visit to South Korea with a speech to the National Assembly in Seoul.<\/p>\n<p>Trump used some of his toughest language yet against North Korea in a wide-ranging address that lodged specific accusations of chilling human rights abuses against Pyongyang. He called on countries around the world to isolate Pyongyang by denying it \u201cany form of support, supply or acceptance\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Trump painted a dystopian picture of North Korea, saying people were suffering in \u201cgulags\u201d and some bribed government officials to work as \u201cslaves\u201d overseas rather than live under the government at home. He offered no evidence to support those accusations.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s return to harsh, uncompromising language against North Korea came a day after he appeared to dial back the bellicose rhetoric that had fuelled fears across east Asia of the risk of military conflict. On Tuesday, Trump had even offered a diplomatic opening to Pyongyang to \u201cmake a deal\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He went mostly on the attack in Wednesday\u2019s speech but did promise a \u201cpath to a much better future\u201d for North Korea if it stopped developing ballistic missiles and agreed to \u201ccomplete, verifiable and total denuclearization\u201d \u2013 something Pyongyang has vowed never to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction. We will not be intimidated,\u201d he told South Korean lawmakers. \u201cAnd we will not let the worst atrocities in history be repeated here, on this ground we fought and died to secure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens it with nuclear devastation,\u201d Trump said, speaking as three US aircraft carrier groups sailed to the Western Pacific for exercises \u2013 a rare show of such US naval force in the region.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Grave danger\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Aiming his words directly at Kim, Trump insisted: \u201cThe weapons that you are acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However Trump, whose strategy has stressed sanctions and military pressure instead of diplomacy, did not spell out any new approach to force North Korea to abandon its missile and weapons programmes.<\/p>\n<p>North Korea has made clear it has little interest in negotiations at least until it develops a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the US mainland, something US intelligence officials say it may be just months away from achieving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNorth Korea is a country ruled by a cult,\u201d Trump said in a speech that was interrupted several times by applause and ended with a standing ovation.<\/p>\n<p>He stopped short, however, of repeating the derisive nickname \u201clittle Rocket Man\u201d that he has used to describe the young North Korean leader.<\/p>\n<p>Kim, for his part, has called Trump \u201cmentally deranged\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The speech came after Trump\u2019s attempt to make an unannounced visit to the heavily fortified border separating North and South Korea was aborted earlier on Wednesday when dense fog prevented his helicopter from landing, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Trump tried to travel to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) \u2014 the doorstep of the North Korean nuclear standoff \u2014 near the end of a 24-hour visit to ally Seoul. He was then due to fly to China, where US officials say he will press a reluctant President Xi Jinping to tighten the screws further on Pyongyang.<\/p>\n<p>However, Trump and his entourage had to turn back when the weather made it impossible for his helicopter to land in the border area, the White House stated.<\/p>\n<p>White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders described Trump as \u201cfrustrated\u201d at having to abandon the trip.<\/p>\n<p>A visit to the DMZ, despite his aides\u2019 earlier insistence he had no plans to go there, would have had the potential to further inflame tensions with North Korea.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s earlier threats to \u201ctotally destroy\u201d North Korea if it threatened the US, and the personal insults he exchanged with Kim after the North\u2019s most recent missile and nuclear tests, had raised fears in the region of a potential spiral into war.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s role<\/p>\n<p>Just before departing for Beijing, Trump specifically cited China, North Korea\u2019s main trading partner, as one of the countries that must fully enforce international sanctions against Pyongyang and downgrade diplomatic and commercial ties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo those nations that choose to ignore this threat or, worse still, to enable it, the weight of this crisis is on your conscience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Trump will try to convince Xi to squeeze North Korea further with steps such as limits on oil exports, coal imports and financial transactions.<\/p>\n<p>But it is far from clear if Xi, who has just consolidated his power at a Communist Party congress, will agree to do more.<\/p>\n<p>China has repeatedly said its leverage over Pyongyang is exaggerated by the West and that it is already doing all it can to enforce sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Xi may be mindful that Trump has held off on trade actions against China that he loudly threatened during the 2016 presidential campaign to give Beijing more time to make progress on North Korea.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEOUL Nov 08 (TNS): US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday, telling him that the nuclear weapons he is developing \u201care not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger\u201d. \u201cDo not underestimate us and do not try us,\u201d Trump told North [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[848,733],"class_list":["post-29710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-seoul","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29712,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29710\/revisions\/29712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}