President Donald Trump followed up his incendiary warning to North Korea against threatening the United States with a boast on Wednesday about the strength of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, but expressed hope this power would never need to be used.
Trump's
Twitter messages about the nuclear arsenal came after North Korea said
it was considering plans for a missile strike on the U.S. Pacific
territory of Guam. That in turn followed Trump's comments on Tuesday
that any North Korean threat to the United States would be met with
"fire and fury."
"My first order as President
was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far
stronger and more powerful than ever before," Trump tweeted. "Hopefully
we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time
that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!"
Trump’s
"fire and fury" remarks prompted warnings from U.S. officials and
analysts not to engage in rhetorical slanging matches with Pyongyang. By
saying he hoped Washington would never need to use its nuclear arsenal,
Trump appeared to temper his comments.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to
play down the rhetoric. Shortly before Trump's remarks on the nuclear
arsenal, Tillerson landed in Guam for a previously scheduled visit after
telling reporters he did not believe there was an imminent threat from
North Korea and that "Americans should sleep well at night."
With
his "fire and fury" warning, the U.S. president was trying to speak in a
way that would resonate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Tillerson
said. North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the United States.
"What
the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in
language that Kim Jong Un would understand, because he doesn't seem to
understand diplomatic language," he saidGUAM THREAT.
Earlier on Wednesday, North Korea said it was
"carefully examining" a plan to strike Guam, which is home to about
163,000 people and a U.S. military base that includes a submarine
squadron, an airbase and a Coast Guard group.
The
plan would be put into practice at any moment, once Kim Jong Un made a
decision, a Korean People's Army spokesman said in a statement carried
by state-run KCNA news agency.
Guam Governor Eddie Calvo dismissed the threat and said the island was prepared for "any eventuality" with strategically placed defenses. He said he had been in touch with the White House and there was no change in the threat level.
The United States and South Korea remain technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
Tension in the region has risen since North Korea
carried out two nuclear bomb tests last year and two intercontinental
ballistic missile tests in July. Trump has said he will not allow
Pyongyang to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting the United States.
North Korea, which is pursuing missile and nuclear weapons programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, accuses the United States
of devising a "preventive war" and has said that any plans to execute
this would be met with an "all-out war, wiping out all the strongholds
of enemies, including the U.S. mainland."
Washington has warned it is ready to use force if needed to stop North Korea's
ballistic missile and nuclear programs but that it prefers global
diplomatic action, including sanctions. The U.N. Security Council
unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday.
For the moment, U.S military officials sought to play down the potential for military conflict.
SOURCE: Reuters.com
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