North Korea has released a propaganda film showing the ‘destruction’ of a US aircraft carrier and bomber jet.
The video released by state media claims that the US would “perish” if it ever attacked the communist state.
A female narrator gleefully exclaims: “A knife will be stabbed into the throat of the carrier, while the bomber will fall from the sky after getting hit by a hail of fire”.
The video features photographs of the ‘Foal Eagle’ military exercises currently being conducted by American and South Korean forces.
The video follows hard on the heels of a direct threat to America from Pyongyang. A statement released this month said: “The Korean People’s Army will reduce the bases of aggression and provocation to ashes with its invincible Hwasong rockets tipped with nuclear warheads … in case the US and the south Korean puppet forces fire even a single bullet at the territory of the DPRK.”
Yesterday, the North’s KCNA news agency announced a successful rocket-engine test.
The announcement came as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Beijing for talks dominated by concern about North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.
Meanwhile, President Trump told reporters he held meetings on North Korea at the weekend. While he didn’t comment directly on the rocket-engine test, he said Kim Jong Un was “acting very, very badly”.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests and a series of missile launches in defiance of UN sanctions, and is believed to be developing nuclear-warhead missiles that could reach the United States.
Last week, Tillerson issued the Trump administration’s starkest warning yet to North Korea, saying in Seoul that a military response would be “on the table” if it took any action that threatened South Korean and US forces.
The US has long urged China to rein in North Korea, but Beijing has consistently answered that the problem was between North Korea and the United States.
However, China too has expressed concerns about Kim’s nuclear programme, recently suspending coal imports from his country.
No formal agreements were announced during Tillerson’s visit to China although the two sides said they agreed to work together to encourage North Korea take “a different course”.
China has called for a dual-track approach on North Korea, urging it to suspend its tests and the United States and South Korea to suspend military exercises so both sides can return to talks.
Beijing has also been angered by the deployment of America’s THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea, which it says will both harm China’s own security too.
China says the system’s powerful radar will extend into the country’s northeast and potentially track Chinese missile launches, and maybe even intercept them. Russia also opposes the system, for the same reasons.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70MTvxFzZ-Y