North Korea Says It Has the Right to Shoot Down U.S. Warplanes
- 7 years ago
North Korea Says It Has the Right to Shoot Down U.S. Warplanes
Mr. Kim, in an unusually direct response, said last week
that Mr. Trump’s insults to him and his country in his United Nations General Assembly speech amounted to the “most ferocious declaration of a war in history,” which warranted “the highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.”
If North Korea were to shoot down a United States military aircraft, it would not be the first time since the Korean War.
North Korea had already deemed Mr. Trump’s threat at the United Nations — to “totally destroy” North
Korea if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies — a declaration of war.
North Korea threatened on Monday to shoot down American warplanes even if they were not in the country’s airspace, stating
that President Trump’s comments suggesting he would eradicate North Korea and its leaders were “a declaration of war.”
The warning, made by Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho of North Korea in New York after a week of United Nations General Assembly meetings, escalated the invective-laced exchanges with Mr. Trump
and appeared to further preclude the possibility of a diplomatic exit from the biggest foreign crisis the administration has faced.
Administration officials denied that the United States had declared war on the isolated, nuclear-armed country of 25
million people, with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, calling such a suggestion “absurd.”
She also said that “it’s never appropriate to shoot down another country’s aircraft when it’s over international waters” and
that the United States wants a peaceful denuclearization of North Korea.
Mr. Kim, in an unusually direct response, said last week
that Mr. Trump’s insults to him and his country in his United Nations General Assembly speech amounted to the “most ferocious declaration of a war in history,” which warranted “the highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.”
If North Korea were to shoot down a United States military aircraft, it would not be the first time since the Korean War.
North Korea had already deemed Mr. Trump’s threat at the United Nations — to “totally destroy” North
Korea if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies — a declaration of war.
North Korea threatened on Monday to shoot down American warplanes even if they were not in the country’s airspace, stating
that President Trump’s comments suggesting he would eradicate North Korea and its leaders were “a declaration of war.”
The warning, made by Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho of North Korea in New York after a week of United Nations General Assembly meetings, escalated the invective-laced exchanges with Mr. Trump
and appeared to further preclude the possibility of a diplomatic exit from the biggest foreign crisis the administration has faced.
Administration officials denied that the United States had declared war on the isolated, nuclear-armed country of 25
million people, with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, calling such a suggestion “absurd.”
She also said that “it’s never appropriate to shoot down another country’s aircraft when it’s over international waters” and
that the United States wants a peaceful denuclearization of North Korea.