The US President-elect Donald Trump has sent a warning to North Korea, saying he was not worried about threats from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about its nuclear programme.
Kim Jong Un said on Sunday his country was close to test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which are likely to reach some parts of the United States and mean North Korea is a “military power of the east that cannot be touched by even the strongest enemy”.
Trump took to Twitter to tell followers he wasn’t worried about the threats: “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the US. It won’t happen!”
The President-elect also took this opportunity to hit out at China, claiming they were failing to do their part to reign in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
“China has been taking out massive amounts of money and wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!” he tweeted.
Chinese media were not happy with Trump’s tweet, with the Global Times saying he was “pandering to ‘irresponsible’ attitudes”.
Geng Shuang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, responded to Trump’s claim: “We hope that all parties will refrain from words and deeds that lead to the escalation of tension in the situation. We hope to jointly push for an early return to dialogue and negotiation on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.”
Whilst Trump dismissed Kim Jong Un’s threat, Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California said the isolated country has made significant progress in developing the ICBM technology.
“The bottom line is Pyongyang is much further along in their missile development than most people realise,” Hanham said.
“The liquid engine test was astounding. For years we knew that North Korea had a Soviet R-27 missile engine design. They re-engineered the design of that engine to double its propulsion.”