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Using armed forces against N Korea 'horrible' thing for US

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 04 December 2019 6:17 PM

North Korea considers any act of aggression carried out by the United States to be "horrible" for the White House and will have a corresponding response, the army chief has said, expressing disappointment with a threat by US President Donald Trump about the possibility of using military force against Pyongyang.

Pak Jong-chon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, said in a statement carried by state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was also "displeased" by the threat.

"I heard that the US president made undesirable remarks about us on December 3 during the NATO summit in Britain. The supreme commander of our armed forces was also displeased to hear that."

During a NATO summit on Tuesday, Trump said he still had confidence in the North Korean leader, but added that Kim "likes sending rockets up, doesn't he?"

"We have the most powerful military we've ever had, and we're by far the most powerful country in the world. And, hopefully, we don't have to use it, but if we do, we'll use it. If we have to, we'll do it."

Pyongyang recently said it was preparing a "Christmas gift" for the US if the Trump administration failed to change its "hostile policies" by the end of the year.

Kim has set the end of 2019 as the deadline for achieving progress in the stalled denuclearization talks with the White House.

"The use of armed forces against Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) will be a horrible thing for the US," Pak said, adding that his country would take "prompt corresponding actions at any level."

North Korea's army chief stressed that the two countries are still technically at war and the state of truce could turn into an "all-out armed conflict any moment" even by accident.

North Korea and the US have been involved in on-and-off diplomacy since 2018. While their leaders have met three times, actual negotiations toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula have snagged.

The North has been under multiple rounds of harsh sanctions by the United Nations and the US over its nuclear and missile programs. In spite of those sanctions, it has taken several unilateral steps as signs of goodwill in the course of the diplomacy with the US. Washington has, nevertheless, failed to offer any sanctions relief in return.