The White House was forced to reject claims that the United States had declared
war on North Korea, labelling the idea as “absurd” in the latest brinkmanship battle between the rogue nation and the world’s super power.
The Foreign Minister of North Korea accused the President of the United States, Mr Donald Trump, of declaring war against his country and said officials in Pyongyang were ready to defend their country by pre-emptively shooting down US bombers who are in the sky just outside of North Korean airspace as a sign of military strength.
Speaking with reporters outside a New York hotel, Ri Yong-ho responded to President Trump’s speech at the United Nations and provocative tweets, saying “since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to take counter-measures including the right to shoot down US strategic bombers even when they are not yet inside the airspace border of our country”.
Responding on behalf of the White House, Press Secretary, Ms Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said “we have not declared war on North Korea and frankly the suggestions of that is absurd”. Addressing the specific threat of shooting down aircraft outside North Korean airspace, Ms Huckabee Sanders sad “it’s never appropriate for a country to shoot down another country’s aircraft when it’s over international waters”.
