WASHINGTON – North Korea’s foreign minister said on Monday that President Donald Trump had declared war on North Korea and that Pyongyang reserves the right to take countermeasures, including shooting down US strategic bombers even if they are not in the country’s airspace.

“The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country,” Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told reporters in New York.

“Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country.”

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Trump had warned the North Korean leader in his UN address last week Tuesday that the United States, f threatened, would “totally destroy” the country of 26 million people and mocked Kim as a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.

It was the US president’s most direct reference to military action so far against the North, which conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on September 3.

In addition to the nuclear test, North Korea has launched dozens of missiles since Kim came to power in 2011. Two recent ballistic missiles flew over Japan as Pyongyang advanced toward its goal of creating nuclear warhead-tipped missiles that can hit the United States.

Reuters