North Korea warns of ‘full scale war’ if US attacks

China, North Korea’s strongest ally that opposes its nuclear escalation, warned Friday against going “tit for tat, with swords drawn and bows bent”. Pyongyang residents have been seen practicing.

And while playing this unsafe game of brinkmanship with North Korea, Trump is enjoying his seventh trip to his golf resort in Palm Beach, Florida since becoming president-and this weekend, he’s without any senior staff. “North Korea is not the case when you first strike and then discuss your reasons with others”, the senator noted.

An influential Washington think tank estimated Friday that North Korea could already have up to 30 bombs.

North Korea will not stand by and watch the United States launch a preemptive strike, a Pyongyang foreign ministry official said Friday.

The festivities normally normally include an vast military parade and synchronized public performances, sometimes involving tens of thousands of people.

China has repeatedly condemned North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.

North Korea has another big military holiday on April 25, when its army marks its anniversary. “We are fully prepared to handle it”, Han said. He did not elaborate.

China tried to calm the North and the United States.

Kim Jong Un didn’t speak before North Korean television ended the live broadcast.

Military experts generally agree a shooting war with North Korea would likely be far more costly than something along the lines of the recent targeted strike Trump ordered against a Syrian air base believed to be linked to a chemical weapons attack by the regime of Bashir Assad.

Over the past week, North Korea made new threats against the U.S.as a strike force of American warships began an approach towards the Korean Peninsula. Some experts think they could be launched as far as 4,000km, according to BBC News, making the country capable of hitting targets like US military bases in Guam.

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol said Trump’s comments on Twitter were adding fuel to a “vicious cycle” of tensions on the Korean peninsula, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

“The U.S. introduces into the Korean peninsula, the world’s biggest hotspot, huge nuclear strategic assets. pushing the situation there to the brink of a war”, it said according to the North’s official news agency KCNA.

Asian markets retreated amid reports that a North Korean official had threatened to “go to War” if provoked by the U.S., which the day before had used its largest non-nuclear bomb ever against underground tunnels used by IS fighters in Afghanistan.

State television showed what appeared to be several KN-08 missiles rolled out on trucks at the parade.

The Nikkei business daily said government discussions included how to rescue the estimated 57,000 Japanese citizens in South Korea as well as how to cope with a possible flood of North Korean refugees coming to Japan, among whom might be North Korean spies and agents.

In his annual New Year’s address, Kim said that the country’s preparations for an ICBM launch have “reached the final stage”.

U.S. officials said they suspected North Korea was planning another underground nuclear test.

Rows of military bands and columns of troops marched into Pyongyang’s main Kim Il-sung square in the heart of the city.

The parade may feature some of the country’s most valuable military hardware, such as its prototype intercontinental ballistic missiles.

A light rain fell in the capital, Pyongyang, as people wearing gumboots and holding umbrellas walked past portraits of the late leader and signs proclaiming “Sun Day is the most significant event in North Korea”. The strike would use non-nuclear weapons, senior intelligence officials said, according to the report.