The communist government of North Korea touted an apparently thousands-strong rally in the heart of Pyongyang—Kim Il-sung Square—Wednesday in response to President Donald Trump’s warning that any attack on U.S. soil would be met with unprecedented “fire and fury.”
The North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun published images of a completely full Kim Il-sung Square—North Korea mandates attendance at government rallies—decorated with banners showing North Korean soldiers and communist slogans. According to the newspaper, the “mass rally” was convened “to fully support the statement of the DPRK government” against the United States.
The article also quoted highlights from a speech reportedly delivered by senior Korean Workers’ Party member Kim Ki Nam, who told the crowd:
The U.S., the most shameless gangster-like state, framed up the “sanctions resolution” with dastards acting as voting machine without any principle. This is no more than desperate efforts of those frightened at the might of the DPRK which rose to the high strategic position as a nuclear power of Juche and world-level military power.
…
We will further increase the might of justice to wipe out the source of all injustice and evils now that the gangster-like acts of the U.S. have reached the height, and clearly show what miserable and wretched fate those standing in the way of the DPRK will have to face.
Kim condemned the American effort to sanction North Korea at the United Nations Security Council as “an unprecedented unethical deed and an intolerable hideous state terrorism.”
North Korea’s state-run YouTube channel Uriminzokkiri posted a video of the event Thursday, showing a large congregation of soldiers and speeches by high-ranking officials, titled “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) rallies to resolve the final victory of the anti-American war with full support for the DPRK government’s statement and preparation for the fight.”
https://youtu.be/iJI-tV_kKyM
Adding to the bellicose tone on the channel are recently-posted videos of battle hymns extolling the virtues of dictator Kim Jong-un.
https://youtu.be/Ctr5n3ZcB6Q
North Korea has increased the frequency of its threats to attack the United States with nuclear weapons since the UN Security Council issued a unanimous vote in favor of sanctions in response to the nation’s latest illegal missile test, which experts believe was of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Following the passing of a new sanctions resolution, the North Korean government began specifically threatening the U.S. territory of Guam, which lies in the south Pacific and is thus the most accessible piece of American land to North Korea.
“As already clarified, the Strategic Force of the KPA is seriously examining the plan for an enveloping strike at Guam through simultaneous fire of four Hwasong-12 intermediate-range strategic ballistic rockets in order to interdict the enemy forces on major military bases on Guam and to signal a crucial warning to the U.S.,” North Korean General Kim Rak Gyom said in a statement published by the Rodong Sinmun this week. Responding to Trump’s remarks in response to the threat, Kim said, “the U.S. president at a golf links [sic] again let out a load of nonsense about ‘fire and fury,’ failing to grasp the on-going grave situation. This is extremely getting on the nerves of the infuriated Hwasong artillerymen of the KPA.”
“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him. This is the judgment made by the service personnel of the KPA Strategic Force,” the military official concluded.
Trump appears not to have heeded the threat, however, as he continued to warn North Korea Friday morning to cease planning to attack Guam. “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Friday. “Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”
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