Trump praises N.Korean leader’s decision not to fire missiles towards Guam-News

President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a “wise”
decision
not to fire missiles towards the U.S. territory
of Guam and for easing escalating tension
between the two
countries.
North Korea has made no secret of its plan to
develop a missile capable of firing a nuclear
warhead at
the U.S. to counter what it perceives as
constant U.S. threats of invasion, and tension
has been rising
for months.
Trump warned North Korea on Aug. 8 it would
face “fire and fury” if it threatened the United
States,
prompting North Korea to say it was
considering test-firing missiles towards the
Pacific island of Guam.
North Korean media reported on Tuesday Kim
had delayed the decision while he awaited to
see what the
United States did next.
“Kim Jong Un of North Korea made a very
wise and well reasoned decision,” Trump wrote
on Twitter.
“The alternative would have been both
catastrophic and unacceptable!”
North Korea has long ignored warnings from
the West and from its lone major ally, China, to
halt its
nuclear and missile tests which it conducts in
defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
The U.S. has been hoping China can press the
North to rein in its weapons programmes.
The top U.S. general reiterated that in talks in
Beijing on Monday.
Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
Joseph Dunford told Fang Fenghui, chief of
the Joint Staff
Department of the People’s Liberation Army, in
Beijing that North Korea’s weapons
programmes
threatened the entire international community,
including China.
“He emphasised that the U.S. and China have
the same goal, a denuclearised Korean
peninsula achieved
through peaceful means …
“North Korean actions threaten the economic
and military security of China,” a U.S. military
spokesman
said in a statement.
“In the interest of regional stability, he said
the U.S. views with growing urgency the need
for China to
increase pressure on the North Korean
regime,” the spokesman said.
“Should preferred diplomatic and economic
peaceful options fail, General Dunford
reiterated America’s
resolve to use the full range of military
capabilities to defend our allies in the Republic
of Korea and
Japan, as well as the U.S. homeland.”
China has repeatedly called for all sides to
exercise restraint and remain calm, and while
it has signed up
for tough UN sanctions on North Korea, it says
the key to a resolution lies in Washington and
Pyongyang
talking to each other, rather than expecting
China to do all the work.
Japan conducted air manoeuvres with U.S.
bombers southwest of the Korean peninsula on
Wednesday
involving two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer
bombers flying from Andersen Air Force Base
on Guam and two
Japanese F-15 jet fighters, Japan’s Air Self
Defence Force said in a news release.