North Korea has released a new propaganda video depicting a fictitious attack on the White House after President Donald Trump threatened Pyongyang with military action if it pursues a sixth nuclear weapons test.
The video, entitled "Within the Scope of Destruction," begins with a montage of military vehicles that appear to be preparing to launch missiles. The footage then cuts to a crosshair superimposed on images of the U.S.' Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, the White House and warships of the Navy's Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group, which Trump has dispatched to the Korean Peninsula. After visuals showing various military imagery, including soldiers storming a beach and artillery and ballistic missile launches, a computer-generated scene imagines an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) strike on the U.S. Capitol.
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"When the enemy takes the first step toward provocation and invasion," the caption accompanying the image of the THAAD missile defense apparatus, the White House and the naval strike group read, according to The Washington Post.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has vowed via its various state-run media outlets to strike the U.S. and its allies if the Pentagon makes a move against the government of Kim Jong Un. The video was reportedly first posted Wednesday on Arirang Meari, a website that promotes the ideology of the North Korean government and serves as a message board for various topics such as health, culture and the environment. Last month, North Korea's official Uriminzokkiri news site released a similarly-themed patriotic montage that showed the USS Carl Vinson and a B-51 bomber under digital crosshairs before ultimately bursting into digitally rendered flames. That video was released during a massive joint military exercise called "Foal Eagle" held annually by the U.S. and South Korea.
Pyongyang's primary media outlet, the Korean Central News Agency, released a commentary Friday entitled "U.S. Administration's Strong-arm Policy Can Never Work on DPRK," referring to the nation's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The piece criticized the U.S.' testing Wednesday of an unarmed LGM Minuteman III ICBM at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The missile, designed to prevent a nuclear attack on the U.S., landed thousands of miles away near the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. North Korea regarded the launch as a simulated attack on its own nation. The article condemned the launch and affirmed North Korea's right to possess nuclear weapons for self-defense.
"The nuclear force of the DPRK is a treasure sword of justice and reliable war deterrent to defend the sovereignty and dignity of the country and global peace from the nuclear war threat posed by the U.S," the KCNA commentary read.
North Korea has been estimated to possess about 1,000 ballistic missiles and between 10 and 20 nuclear weapons. At the beginning of the year, Kim announced his country was in the final stages of successfully producing an ICBM, however experts have raised doubts as to how close North Korea really is to producing such a weapon and whether it is capable of fitting it with a nuclear warhead.
On Wednesday, Trump gathered all 100 members of the Senate at the White House to brief the lawmakers on the administration's strategy for dealing with North Korea. As the Navy nears the Korean Peninsula, Trump has said he wished to end Pyongyang's nuclear program by engaging in dialogue.
"There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely," Trump told Reuters Thursday.
"We'd love to solve things diplomatically but it's very difficult," he added.
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Based in his hometown of Staten Island, New York City, Tom O'Connor is an award-winning Senior Writer of Foreign Policy ... Read more
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