North Korea is never shy about making over-the-top war threats, and its latest is a doozy. In response to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson saying the Trump administration may name North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, the ruling party’s official newspaper says Pyongyang may have to hit the U.S. with a “super-mighty preemptive strike.”
The newspaper said the strike “will completely and immediately wipe out not only U.S. imperialists’ invasion forces in South Korea and its surrounding areas but the U.S. mainland and reduce them to ashes.”
Tillerson’s comments came Wednesday at the State Department, where he said the U.S. is considering many options to put pressure on North Korea.
“We’re reviewing all of the status of North Korea, both in terms of state sponsorship of terrorism as well as the other ways in which we can bring pressure on the regime in Pyongyang to reengage with us, but reengage with us on a different footing than past talks have been held,” he said.
North Korea was removed from the list of state sponsors of terror in 2008 as a last-ditch move to save a nuclear deal that was near collapse. Now, Iran, Sudan, and Syria are the only three countries on the State Department’s list. The designation carries with it sanctions and economic restrictions.
