{"id":41119,"date":"2018-01-01T13:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-01-01T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=41119"},"modified":"2018-01-01T13:00:59","modified_gmt":"2018-01-01T08:00:59","slug":"north-koreas-kim-says-nuclear-button-is-on-my-desk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=41119","title":{"rendered":"North Korea’s Kim says nuclear button is on my desk"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEOUL Jan 01 (TNS):<\/strong> Kim Jong Un on Monday warned the United States that he has a \u201cnuclear button\u201d on his desk ready for use if North Korea is threatened, but offered an olive branch to South Korea, saying he was \u201copen to dialogue\u201d with Seoul.<\/p>\n

After a year dominated by fiery rhetoric and escalating tensions over North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapons program, Kim used his televised New Year\u2019s Day speech to call for lower military tensions on the Korean peninsula and improved ties with the South.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to North-South relations, we should lower the military tensions on the Korean Peninsula to create a peaceful environment,\u201d Kim said. \u201cBoth the North and the South should make efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim said he will consider sending a delegation to the Winter Olympics Games to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Korea\u2019s participation in the Winter Games will be a good opportunity to show unity of the people and we wish the Games will be a success. Officials from the two Koreas may urgently meet to discuss the possibility,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has said North Korea\u2019s participation will ensure safety of the Pyeongchang Olympics and proposed last month that Seoul and Washington postpone large military drills that the North denounces as a rehearsal for war until after the Games.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Moon\u2019s office said they were still reviewing Kim\u2019s New Year\u2019s Day speech.<\/p>\n

Rather than encouraging U.S. measures that \u201cthreaten the security and peace of the Korean peninsula,\u201d Seoul should instead respond to overtures from the North, Kim said.<\/p>\n

North Korea tested intercontinental ballistic missiles and conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September in defiance of international warnings and sanctions, raising fears of a new conflict on the Korean peninsula.<\/p>\n

After testing what Pyongyang said was its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), capable of delivering a warhead to anywhere in the continental United States, at the end of November, Kim declared his nuclear force complete.<\/p>\n

He continued that theme in his New Year\u2019s address, announcing that North Korea would focus on \u201cmass producing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles for operational deployment\u201d in the coming year.<\/p>\n

This, Kim said, made it impossible for the United States to start a war against North Korea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat,\u201d he said, while emphasizing that \u201cthese weapons will be used only if our security is threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

As by reporters to comment on Kim\u2019s speech, U.S. President Donald Trump simply said \u201cwe\u2019ll see, we\u2019ll see\u201d, as he walked into New Year\u2019s eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago, his elite resort in Florida.<\/p>\n

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Kim\u2019s New Year\u2019s address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEOUL Jan 01 (TNS): Kim Jong Un on Monday warned the United States that he has a \u201cnuclear button\u201d on his desk ready for use if North Korea is threatened, but offered an olive branch to South Korea, saying he was \u201copen to dialogue\u201d with Seoul. After a year dominated by fiery rhetoric and escalating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,847],"tags":[932,1960,1181],"class_list":["post-41119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-seoul","tag-international","tag-kim-jong","tag-seol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41119","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=41119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41121,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41119\/revisions\/41121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}