Trump’s bellicose language could spark war with North Korea: Journalist

US President Donald Trump’s refusal to talk and engage in diplomacy with North Korea and his bellicose language against its leadership could spark a war between Washington and Pyongyang, an American journalist and political analyst in New York says.

Ian Williams, a senior analyst with Foreign Policy in Focus, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday while commenting on Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

On Sunday, Democratic Senator Brian Schatz from Hawaii said Trump’s policy of brinkmanship on North Korea could lead the United States towards an accidental war.

Schatz urged Americans in a series of tweets to heed Republican Senator Bob Corker’s comment that Trump could lead the United States toward “World War III.”  

“There’s a huge risk of an accidental war. The Second World War started deliberately but the First World War was an accident. You could almost say that the Korean War was an accident,” Williams said.

“It’s not surprising that South Koreans are among those who are the most scared by having such a fierce ‘friend’ as Donald Trump, because while he gets his geopolitical gestures South Korea gets devastated in almost any military scenario,” he stated.

“And this is intolerable to the rest of the world. That means the consequences could spread,” the analyst said.  

'US has been threatening North Korea for 70 years'

Williams said it is “quite clear that the North Korean regime is paranoid and Korean regime is not entirely sane by the rest of the world's standards.”

“But they have solid reasons to be paranoid. The US has been now threatening them for 70 years and devastated them during the Korean War. The US practiced using napalm during the Korean War while dropping more bombs than they used in WWII,” he said.

“So the North Koreans have a lot of reasons to be very suspicious of the United States, and everything this government in Washington is doing is certain to enhance and exacerbate those suspicions,” the journalist noted.

"So, who’s the more rational one here? Washington should know that North Korea has solid grounds for suspicions, and yet does nothing to allay them, but everything to stoke them,” he said.

“So, yes the senator is quite right that Trump’s refusal to talk and engage in diplomacy with North Koreans and his bellicose language, with threats that are calculated to put fuel in every paranoid suspicion that Pyongyang has, is completely counterproductive and dangerous,” the commentator observed.

PressTV-'N Korea to test new missile capable of hitting US'

A Russian lawmaker says North Korea is preparing for a long-range missile launch that Pyongyang believes could hit the US.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly last month, Trump warned  the North Korean leader that the United States, if threatened, would “totally destroy” his country of 26 million people.

In response, Kim said Trump will “pay dearly” for threatening to destroy North Korea. He added that Trump is "a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire," who is "unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country."

Kim described the US president as "mentally deranged" and warning he would "pay dearly" for threatening to destroy his country.

North Korea has conducted several nuclear tests and missile test-launches in response to US threats against the country.

The North Korean leader ordered the production of more rocket warheads and engines in September, shortly after the United States suggested that its threats of military action and sanctions were having an impact on Pyongyang’s behavior.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir