US locked and loaded' for North Korea

President Donald Trump on Friday turned up the heat on North Korea, warning Pyongyang that the US military is “locked and loaded” in the event of a misstep by the totalitarian state, despite mounting international calls for restraint.

Mr Trump launched another salvo at the regime of Kim Jong-Un to keep its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes in check, as the North’s official news agency accused the US of driving the situation “to the brink” of war.

The latest Twitter threat from the US President came as concerns swelled worldwide that a miscalculation by either side could trigger a catastrophic conflict on the Korean peninsula. “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!” Mr Trump tweeted from his golf club retreat in New Jersey, where he is spending two weeks.

The official KCNA news service countered in an editorial that “Trump is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war,” calling the US “the mastermind of nuclear threat, the heinous nuclear war fanatic.”

Earlier, Mr Trump had issued fresh warnings to North Korea, saying things will happen to the country like it “never thought possible” if Pyongyang thinks about attacking America or any of its allies.

Referring to his Tuesday’s statement that North Korean threat to the US will be met with “fire and fury”, he said the message wasn’t tough enough and it’s time to act for the people of America.

“It’s the first time they’ve heard it like they heard it. Frankly, the people that were questioning that statement, was it too tough, maybe it wasn’t tough enough.

“They’ve been doing this to our country for a long time, for many years, and it’s about time that somebody stuck up for the people of this country and for the people of other countries. So, if anything, maybe that statement wasn’t tough enough,” he said.

“The people of this country should be very comfortable, and I will tell you this, if North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about attack on anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous,” Mr Trump said.

“They should be very nervous, because things will happen to them like they never thought possible. He (Kim) has been pushing the world around for a long time. I have great respect for what China and what Russia did, and we got a 15-to-nothing vote,” he added.

Meanwhile, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov cautioned that the risks of escalation of tensions between the United States and North Korea were “very high” following the recent war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.

Moscow is “very alarmed” at Washington’s rhetoric of preemptive military action, he said, adding the US, as a more powerful state than North Korea, should take the first step to cool tensions.

US defense secretary Jim Mattis appeared intent on easing the tension, describing the prospect of war as “catastrophic” and saying diplomacy remained the priority.