President Donald Trump yesterday 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.
Trump again urged 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 Republican billionaire leader 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!” Trump wrote from his golf club retreat in New Jersey, where he is on a working vacation.
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 in Beijing, China - Pyongyang’s main diplomatic ally - urged Trump and Kim to tone down the sabre-rattling.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang called on both sides to avoid “going down the old path of alternately showing strength and continuously escalating the situation.”
“We call on the relevant parties to be cautious with their words and actions, and contribute more toward easing tensions and enhancing mutual trust,” Geng said in a statement.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was “very alarmed” at Trump’s tough talk, and said Washington should take the first step toward cooling tensions.
“When a fight has nearly broken out, the first step away from the dangerous threshold should be taken by the side that is stronger and smarter,” Lavrov said. Beijing has repeatedly pushed resuming long-dormant six-party talks to peacefully resolve the mounting tensions, but its position has been overshadowed by Trump and Kim’s emerging game of brinkmanship.
China’s proposal for North Korea to halt its weapons programmes in exchange for a suspension of military drills by the United States and South Korea has essentially been ignored.
Trump has progressively ramped up the tone throughout the week - after brandishing a threat of unleashing “fire and fury” on North Korea, he said on Thursday maybe that statement “wasn’t tough enough.”
He warned Pyongyang it should be “very, very nervous” of the consequences if it even thinks of attacking US soil, after Kim’s regime said it was readying plans to launch missiles towards the US Pacific territory of Guam.
Trump also called on China to “do a lot more” to heap pressure on Kim.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined the intensifying chorus of calls for restraint, saying diplomacy was the answer. “Germany will very intensively take part in the options for resolution that are not military but I consider a verbal escalation to be the wrong response,” she said.
Nearly a week ago, the UN Security Council unanimously passed fresh sanctions against Pyongyang over its weapons programme, including export bans, a new punishment that could cost North Korea $1bn a year.
“This is clearly a time for all the parties to focus on how to de-escalate and lower the tensions,” said the spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric. 

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