Donald Trump is ‘Begging’ for Nuclear War: N Korea

SEOUL: North Korea said the US is “begging” for a nuclear war by planning the “largest-ever” joint aerial drill with South Korea just after concluding an exercise with nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

“Should the Korean peninsula and the world be embroiled in the crucible of nuclear war because of the reckless nuclear war mania of the US, the US will have to accept full responsibility for it,” North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said on Saturday, citing a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The five-day Vigilant Ace drill — involving some 230 aircraft including F-22 Raptor stealth jet fighters — begins on Monday, five days after the North test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile believed capable of hitting the US mainland in a fresh challenge to President Donald Trump.

The North’s ruling party Rodong newspaper slammed the upcoming drill. “It is an open, all-out provocation against the DPRK, which may lead to a nuclear war any moment,” it said in an editorial on Sunday, using the North’s official name. “The US and South Korean puppet warmongers would be well advised to bear in mind that their DPRK-targeted military drill will be as foolish as an act precipitating their self- destruction,” it said.

The commentary was published a day after Pyongyang’s foreign ministry accused the Trump administration of “begging for nuclear war” by staging what it called the reckless air drills. White House National Security Advisor H R McMaster said the possibility of war with the North was “increasing every day”. “I think it’s increasing every day, which means that...we are in a race to be able to solve this problem,” he said at a forum on Saturday.