North Korea rails against US military exercises

Donald Trump steps up North Korea rhetoric

11 August

The war of words between Donald Trump and North Korea escalated overnight, as the US President told reporters that his threat to rain down "fire and fury" might not have been strong enough.

"Rejecting critics at home and abroad who condemned his earlier warning as reckless sabre-rattling, Trump said North Korea and its volatile leader, Kim Jong-un, have pushed the United States and the rest of the world for too long," says the New York Times says.

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The US President said: "Frankly, the people who were questioning that statement, was it too tough? Maybe it wasn’t tough enough."

His comments follow increasing threats from Pyongyang, including the announcement of plans to fire four missiles towards the US territory of Guam, which houses a strategically important naval and air base.

However, the US Defence Secretary James Mattis offered warned that armed conflict with North Korea would be "catastrophic" and said diplomacy was bearing fruit, the BBC says. "The American effort is diplomatically led," he said. "It has diplomatic traction, it is gaining diplomatic results."

Malcolm Turnbull, the Australian Prime Minister, has reacted to the increasing hostility between Washington and Pyongyang by underlining his country's military alliance with the US.

"Be very, very clear on that," Turnbull told 3AW Radio. "If there's an attack on the US, the Anzus Treaty would be invoked and Australia would come to the aid of the United States, as America would come to our aid if we were attacked."