North Korea’s state newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, published a menacing editorial on July 4 threatening “final doom” for the “U.S. imperialists” should they not cease to sanction and condemn Pyongyang’s rogue regime.
The publication of the piece followed the announcement of yet another missile launch. North Korea now claims to have a functional intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Noting that the United States had recently expanded its sanctions on the North Korean regime and continued military exercises in the region following multiple violations of international legal norms and the death of former North Korean hostage Otto Warmbier, Rodong condemned the alleged “imperialist” tendencies of the United States.
“These madcap military provocations are nothing but an extremely dangerous action to drive the situation in the peninsula to the verge of nuclear war and a blatant challenge to all Koreans and the world people desirous of peace and stability,” the Rodong Sinmun article read. “Such cowardly bluff of the Yankees as making a military mockery of only weak nation [sic] without nuke may work on other countries but never on the DPRK.”
“If the U.S. imperialists opt for the reckless military provocations, they will meet their final doom to be entailed by their foolish judgment and strategic mistakes,” the article concluded.
Both the state newspaper and the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) regularly threaten the United States with “doom” or total destruction, insulting American leaders and dismissing South Korea as a “puppet” government.
Last week, Rodong Sinmun referred to President Donald Trump as a “psychopath” and called his “America first” policy an “American version of Nazism.” Trump’s policies, it continued, were “far surpassing the fascism in the last century in its ferocious, brutal and chauvinistic nature.” That same article vowed to “annihilate all the invaders” should the United States attempt a military intervention.
In June, the newspaper accused the United States of deliberately causing the global migrant crisis triggered by the Syrian civil war in a “human rights white paper” intended to accuse America of similar human rights violations as those known to be executed by the North Korean regime.
Rodong Sinmun‘s latest outraged column followed the execution of yet another illegal missile test on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang claimed to have successfully tested a missile that “can reach anywhere in the world on Monday.” American officials told the South Korean news agency Yonhap that their intelligence suggested that North Korea had indeed tested an ICBM and that it may have the ability to reach as far as Alaska. “If confirmed, the ICBM test would put the North much closer to perfecting capabilities to strike the continental U.S. with a nuclear weapon and send the already high tensions with the North soaring higher,” Yonhap added.
President Trump responded to the missile launch with a message on Twitter, suggesting regional patience for such antics was waning and mocking dictator Kim Jong-un, asking, “Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?”
In a separate tweet, Trump added that China should also participate in ending the “nonsense” performed by North Korea’s dictator.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned the missile test. “The Chinese side opposes launches by the DPRK in violation of relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council,” spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Tuesday. “The Chinese side urges the DPRK not to violate relevant Security Council resolutions any more and create necessary conditions for the resumption of dialogue and negotiation.”
Trump met with South Korean president Moon Jae-in in the White House last week. During his remarks at a joint press conference with Moon, Trump declared, “the era of strategic patience with the North Korea regime has failed.”