Last night, as you were going to bed, the White House was forced to deny that America had declared war on North Korea. Why? Because North Korea had inferred from Donald Trump on Twitter that they were, indeed, at war.
After hearing North Korea’s Foreign Minister, Ri Yong-ho, speak at the UN in New York, the President took to Twitter to call Kim Jong Un a ‘little rocket man’ and imply that, as far as he’s concerned, North Korea ‘won’t be around much longer’.
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Perhaps Donald Trump was feeling a bit riled because Mr Ri described him as a ‘mentally deranged person full of megalomania’ on a ‘suicide mission’ in his UN Speech. Cutting, sure, but based on his Twitter feed not totally unjustified. The President continues to stoke North Korea’s ire and you could be forgiven for thinking he is deliberately provoking misunderstandings.
While we aren’t sure whether Donald Trump is an Elton John fan, North Korea certainly didn’t see the funny side and accused Trump ‘declaring war’. Ri Yong-ho, who had just addressed the UN General Assembly, said that North Korea had the right to shoot down US bombers approaching the country’s airspace before telling reporters ‘the whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared was on our country.’
‘Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make counter-measures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country’, he added.
Sarah Sanders, White House Press Secretary, was forced to take to the press podium and deny that America had declared war on North Korea, ‘the suggestion is absurd’ she said.
Other world leaders are less than impressed by Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. China’s ambassador to the UN, Liu Jieyi, told Reuters ‘we want things to calm down…it’s getting too dangerous and it’s nobody’s interest. Meanwhile, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, said ‘fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings. The only solution for this is a political solution.’
As Dr Patricia Lewis, Research Director of International Security at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, has previously told The Debrief: ‘there are so many levels on which one can be concerned and worried' she said, 'I think the most important thing is the potential for miscalculation or misinterpretation of what is said or what is done by either side. We have a number of examples in the past of when a large-scale military exercise has been seen as a pretext for invasion. This is something we know North Korea is very worried about – every time there is a large-scale military exercise involving Japan and the US happens in the region the rhetoric ramps up, it gets more belligerent because they’re worried that this could be a pretext for a real invasion.’
As middle-aged men in both North Korea and the United States continue to wage a war of words, let’s hope, as per the Second World War maxim, that carless Twitter talk doesn’t end up costing anyone’s lives.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.