Saying the U.S. was becoming “more vicious and more aggressive” under his leadership than it had been under President Barack Obama, North Korea’s vice foreign minister on Friday blamed President Donald Trump for escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula through his tweets and expansion of military exercises.

Saying, “We will go to war if they choose,” the U.S. was also warned against provoking North Korea militarily by Vice Minister Han Song Ryol in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press in Pyongyang.

“If the U.S. comes with reckless military maneuvers then we will confront it with the DPRK’s preemptive strike,” Han said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “We’ve got a powerful nuclear deterrent already in our hands, and we certainly will not keep our arms crossed in the face of a U.S. preemptive strike.”

Han was calm and polite but forceful throughout the 40-minute interview, speaking through an interpreter provided by the foreign ministry.

As the U.S. is conducting its biggest-ever joint military exercises with South Korea and has sent an aircraft carrier to waters off the peninsula, tensions are deepening between the two countries. And some experts say Pyongyang could conduct another nuclear test at virtually anytime.

“That is something that our headquarters decides,” Han said of what would be North Korea’s sixth nuclear test. “At a time and at a place where the headquarters deems necessary, it will take place.”

Within the next few years, a ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland on Trump’s watch as president and a viable nuclear warhead could be possessed by the country, many North Korea watchers believe.

North Korea blames Trump and the U.S. for the rising tensions, Han, however, said.

A tweet Trump posted Tuesday in which he said the North is “looking for trouble”, apart from the U.S.-South Korean wargames and the deployment of the aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, were cited by him. If China doesn’t do its part to rein in Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, the U.S. can handle it, Trump also tweeted.

“Trump is always making provocations with his aggressive words,” Han said. “So that’s why. It’s not the DPRK but the U.S. and Trump that makes trouble.”

“As long as the nuclear threats and blackmail go on with the military exercises, we will carry forward with our national defense buildup, the core of which is the nuclear arms buildup,” Han said.

“Whatever comes from the U.S., we will cope with it. We are fully prepared to handle it.”

Despite the political back and forth, outwardly, there are few signs of concern in North Korea. Instead, the 105th anniversary of the birth of the late Kim Il Sung, the country’s founder and leader Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, is being prepared to be celebrated in a grand fashion.

Despite a raft of international sanctions punishing it over its nuclear weapons program, speculation is growing that Pyongyang may be close to conducting more nuclear or missile tests at the same time.

(Adapted from CNBC)

Categories: Geopolitics, Uncategorized