President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a “wise” decision not to fire missiles towards the U.S. territory of Guam and for easing escalating tension between the two countries.
North Korea has made no secret of its plan to develop a missile capable of firing a nuclear warhead at the U.S. to counter what it perceives as constant U.S. threats of invasion.
Tension has been rising on this issue for months.
Trump warned North Korea on Aug. 8 it would face “fire and fury” if it threatened the United States, prompting North Korea to say it was considering test-firing missiles towards the Pacific Island of Guam.
North Korean media reported on Tuesday Kim had delayed the decision while he awaited what the United States would do next.
“Kim Jong Un of North Korea made a very wise and well reasoned decision,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“The alternative would have been both catastrophic and unacceptable!”
North Korea has long ignored warnings from the West and from its lone major ally, China, to halt its nuclear and missile tests which it conducts in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
The U.S. has been hoping China can press the North to rein in its weapons programmes.
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The top U.S. general reiterated that in talks in Beijing on Monday.
Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford told Fang Fenghui, chief of the Joint Staff Department of the People’s Liberation Army, in Beijing that North Korea’s weapons programmes threatened the entire international community, including China.
“He emphasised that the U.S. and China have the same goal, a denuclearised Korean peninsula achieved through peaceful means …
“North Korean actions threaten the economic and military security of China,” a U.S. military spokesman said in a statement.
“In the interest of regional stability, he said the U.S. views with growing urgency the need for China to increase pressure on the North Korean regime,” the spokesman said.
“Should preferred diplomatic and economic peaceful options fail, General Dunford reiterated America’s resolve to use the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies in the Republic of Korea and Japan, as well as the U.S. homeland.”
China has repeatedly called for all sides to exercise restraint and remain calm.
While it has signed up for tough UN sanctions on North Korea, it says the key to a resolution lies in Washington and Pyongyang talking to each other, rather than expecting China to do all the work.
Japan conducted air manoeuvres with U.S. bombers southwest of the< Korean peninsula on Wednesday involving two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flying from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and two Japanese F-15 jet fighters, Japan’s Air Self Defence Force said in a news release.
