You probably shouldn’t sweat it too much that North Korea accused President Trump Monday of issuing a declaration of war.
They do this sort of thing all the time, as Foreign Policy’s Isaac Stone Fish helpfully noted Monday.
In May, for example, Pyongyang claimed it had rooted out a plot between the U.S. and South Korea to assassinate North Korea’s despicable boy despot, Kim Jong Un. Pyongyang referred to this alleged plot as a “declaration of war.”
Earlier, in 2016, Pyongyang accused South Korea of a “dangerous declaration of war” after Seoul bailed on a project that saw the two countries jointly running the Kaesong industrial complex in North Korea.
Pyongyang also claimed in July of that same year that new U.S. sanctions were a “declaration of war.”
Three years prior, the same year North Korea tested seven ballistic missiles, Pyongyang referred to joint U.S./South Korean military exercises as an “open declaration of war.”
Also in 2013, North Korea said a new round of U.N. sanctions “mean war and a declaration of war against us.”
In 2010, after South Korea explained that it would launch a pre-emptive strike if it had reason to believe the North was about to launch an attack of its own, Pyongyang referred to the South’s plans as a “declaration of war.”
North Korea has such a reputation for responding this way to anything concerning its sphere of influence that the Onion, a satirical news website, even published a funny bit of satire in 2006 titled Kim Jong-Il Interprets Sunrise As Act Of War.
Strong words to be sure, but this is nothing new for North Korea. The only thing that has changed is who’s sitting in the Oval Office. Depending on your politics, that either terrifies or delights you.
The president tweeted Monday morning, “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”
His remarks come almost one week after he warned before the U.N. General Asembly in New York that America would “totally destroy” the Hermit Kingdom should it attack the U.S. or its allies.
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. ‘Rocket Man’ is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime,” Trump told the U.N.
Kim two days later said, “The mentally deranged behavior of the U.S. president openly expressing on the U.N. arena the unethical will to ‘totally destroy’ a sovereign … makes even those with normal thinking faculty think about discretion and composure.”
“Action is the best option in treating the dotard who, hard of hearing, is uttering only what he wants to say,” he added, according to a translation provided by the Korean Central News Agency.
On Monday North Korea’s foreign minister told the U.N. that Trump’s Monday morning tweet was tantamount to a declaration of war.
“For the past couple of days, we had earnestly hoped that the war of words between North Korea and the U.S. would not lead to action,” Ri Yong Ho said, according to NPR. “However, Trump had ultimately declared war again last weekend, by saying regarding our leadership, that he will make it unable to last longer.”
Whether Trump intends to escalate things further is yet to be seen. For now, though, North Korea hasn’t said anything it hasn’t already said in the past. Pyongyang’s response this week, though strongly worded, is about par for the course.
