North Korea threatens Trump with nuclear response after US moves

North Korea on Friday doubled down on expanding its nuclear forces, warning it will use “strategic means” to counter military cooperation between the U.S. and its South Korean ally.

Newsweek reached out to the North Korean embassy in China with a written request for comment.

Why It Matters

Kim Jong Un’s frequent missile tests and expanding nuclear capabilities have further aggravated North-South relations, now at their lowest point in decades.

Pyongyang now possesses a limited number of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) believed capable of striking targets across North America, though one senior U.S. Air Force official recently warned any such attack would backfire. Last week, the U.S. test-fired an ICBM over the Pacific and deployed strategic bombers for joint drills with South Korea’s Air Force.

What To Know

According to a statement by North Korea’s defense ministry information office, the second Trump administration has already stepped up U.S. “provocations threatening the security environment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”

Wednesday’s launch of the Minuteman III ICBM, joint live-fire drills with South Korean troops near the border earlier this month, and the recent five-day port call of the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Alexandria in Busan, South Korea, were listed as provocative U.S. moves, by the DPRK.

It also condemned the upcoming Freedom Shield exercise, the annual U.S.-South Korea joint military drill aimed at bolstering deterrence and readiness against North Korean threats.

“This reality clearly proves why the DPRK armed forces’ build up of war-fighting capability, with nuclear deterrence at its core, is a just and inevitable option,” it added, vowing to “counter the strategic threat of the U.S. and other enemies with strategic means.”

What People Are Saying

Choi Sang-mok, acting South Korean President, said during a recent visit to the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff command control center: “The military must maintain a readiness posture to make an immediate response to any provocations from North Korea while establishing an unwavering military command structure.”

What’s Next?

During his first term, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Kim three times but failed to secure meaningful concessions on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. In January, the White House reaffirmed that North Korea’s denuclearization remains a priority.

Earlier this month, the president announced he wants to restart talks with Russia and China on significantly reducing military budgets and downsizing their respective nuclear stockpiles.