North Korea vows to crush a U.S. invasion of its territory it sees as a certainty following its allegations U.S. troops are massing and training in South Korea for this cross-border war.
It's loud and public condemnation of this alleged U.S. plot also seems to indicate the ultimate failure of the Singapore summit of June 12 between president Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
In its most virulent repudiation of the Trump administration after the Singapore summit, North Korea accused the United States of "hatching a criminal plot to unleash a war against the DPRK" while "having a dialogue with a smile on its face," an obvious reference to Trump's annoying grin.
A scathing editorial in the "Rodong Sinmun," the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, seems to have been triggered by press reports U.S. military forces in Japan are training for a lightning military strike at Pyongyang. American Special Forces troops were alleged to have been flown in from the Philippines for this purpose.
The editorial said North Korea cannot but take a serious note of the double-dealing attitudes of the US. It also said the U.S. is mistaken if it thinks it can browbeat a nation using the trite gunboat diplomacy it used to employ in the past as an almighty weapon to attain its sinister intention.
In addition, the newspaper claimed the USS Michigan (SSGN-727), an Ohio-class guided-missile nuclear submarine, had recently transported Green Berets, Delta Force, and other American Special Operations Forces units from Okinawa to the Jinhae naval base in South Korea.
Rodong Sinmun contends these hostile acts prove the Americans are hatching a criminal plot to unleash a war against North Korea in case the U.S. fails to force North Korea into accepting its definition of denuclearization. It said this U.S. move will be a crime that deserves "merciless divine punishment."
The U.S. quickly denied the North Korean allegations but not before Pyongyang reacted in its usual threatening manner. Colonel John Hutcheson, the director of public affairs for U.S. Forces Japan, said he isn't sure what drills the newspaper was referring to. He said U.S. military aircraft regularly fly from Japan to the Philippines and other nations in Southeast Asia for a variety of training and operational reasons. He said the notion that any single flight is related to North Korea is a bit farfetched.
Pyongyang's verbal assaults came after Trump stopped Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from making his fourth trip to North Korea. Trump said insufficient progress has been made on the issue of denuclearization.
Trump's move caught both North and South Korea by surprise. South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa and Pompeo spoke by telephone late last week to discuss the canceled trip, and where negotiations might go from here. Pompeo is said to have explained in detail the reasons for postponing the trip.
Kang called the cancellation regrettable. Pompeo, however, reaffirmed the U.S. will continue to strengthen South Korea-U.S. cooperation. Despite this diplomatic row, South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to visit Pyongyang in September for the third summit with Kim.
