Trump scorns Kim after threat of H-bomb test

Bloomberg ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

North Korea struck back at US President Donald Trump’s threats to destroy it, with Kim Jong Un warning of the “highest level
of hard-line countermeasure in history” and his foreign minister suggesting that could include
testing a hydrogen bomb in the
Pacific Ocean.
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho spoke to reporters in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.
He said in remarks broadcast on South Korean TV that the countermeasures flagged by Kim might refer to a “strongest-ever” ground-level test of a hydrogen bomb
in the Pacific. Still, he added
that “we have no idea what the measures will be” and that it was for Kim to decide, according to Yonhap News.
Trump responded on Twitter, “Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!” He expanded on those comments at a political rally in Alabama, saying Kim may be “smart, he may be strategic” or he may be “totally crazy,” but no matter what, Americans will be protected.
Trump and Kim are engaged in an increasingly hostile war of words over North Korea’s weapons programme, which has seen it launch intercontinental ballistic missiles and test its sixth—and most powerful—nuclear weapon in recent weeks.
Trump this week threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if it provokes the US or allies, and ordered new sanctions on individuals, companies and banks doing business with Pyongyang.
His message in Alabama night was less strident. “Maybe something gets worked out and maybe it doesn’t,” but the American people are protected, he said.
“Nobody is going to put our people in that kind of danger. Rocket Man should have been handled a long time ago.”
The yen rose the most in two weeks as the fresh rhetoric from North Korea spurred demand for haven assets. Treasury yields and regional stocks fell after Yonhap reported Ri’s remarks.
His comments came after Trump ordered new sanctions
on individuals, companies and banks doing business with North Korea as he sought to further isolate the regime and increase economic pressure for it to curb its weapons programmes.
Ri’s address to the UN was pushed back one day to Saturday, Yonhap reported, citing unidentified people. The reason for the delay is unclear, it said.
Kim responded to Trump’s remarks at the UN meeting in a statement on state media, calling the president “mentally deranged.”
“Now that Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history that he would destroy the DPRK, we will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history,” Kim said in the statement to the Korean Central News Agency.

Tremor detected near North Korean nuclear test site
Bloomberg

A tremor struck on Saturday close to North Korea’s nuclear test site, though South Korea’s weather agency said it was a natural earthquake.
The tremor occurred at 4:29 pm China time with a magnitude of 3.4 and a depth of zero kilometres, the China Earthquake Networks Center said in a statement. South Korea’s weather agency said in a statement on its website that it was not artificially triggered.
The United States Geological Survey put the quake’s magnitude at 3.5 and its depth at 5 kilometres. North Korea detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear weapon earlier this month at its underground Punggye-ri site northeast of Pyongyang, causing a quake with a magnitude of around 6.3. The move escalated tensions with the US and North Korea’s neighbours, and this week its foreign minister said the regime’s options included testing a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.
There have been concerns about the stability of the nuclear test site since the September 3 detonation. Website 38 North said satellite imagery taken after that test appeared to show landslides atop the site that were more numerous and widespread than after the previous five tests.
The website, run by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, added the bomb’s 250-kiloton yield was close to what it previously determined was the maximum that could be contained by the test site.
The September 3 detonation followed two intercontinental ballistic missile launches in July that brought Kim Jong Un’s isolated regime a step closer to achieving its aim of being able to deploy a nuclear warhead over the continental US.
North Korea struck back at US President Donald Trump’s threats to destroy it, with Kim warning of the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history” and his foreign minister suggesting that could include testing a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho spoke to reporters in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly. He said in remarks broadcast on South Korean TV that the countermeasures flagged by Kim might refer to a “strongest-ever” ground-level test of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific.
Earlier this month, Pyongyang fired its second missile in as many months over northern Japan into the Pacific Ocean.