Over the first several months of Donald Trump's new presidency, tensions have increased between North Korea and the U.S. as he has threatened to take military action against the nation's leader Kim Jong-un for their continued missile tests. A report by Blasting News on a recent celebration for the country's founder Kim Il-sung said that it was one of two celebrations expected this month, during which many anticipated that the North would conduct another ballistic missile test and/or conduct a sixth underground nuclear test.
April's rising tensions between U.S. and North Korea
At the time of their 105th celebration, they did not conduct either test and so that Saturday passed without incident. At the same time, the Trump administration had announced that a U.S. naval strike force had been deployed which was enough to "rattle" the DPRK. In response, they promised to attack the U.S. and its allies nearby.
Over the next few days, North Korea did try to conduct another missile test but the missile exploded before launch. As a side note, it was suggested that perhaps the CIA or other external intelligence might have hacked the missile causing it to explode.
After some issues with President Trump's claims that a naval strike group had been deployed -- military leaders claimed that the group had been heading towards Korea but was found to be going in the opposite direction -- North Korea was in the process of holding a second celebration last Tuesday for the 85th anniversary of the Korean People's Army.
The DPRK (another name for North Korea's government) has said that they would be ready to strike the USS Carl Vinson (the aircraft carrier leading the strike group) and sink it with one hit.
Their second celebration was accompanied with live-fire drills in the Wonsan area around the East Coast, where they deployed a significant number of long-range artillery units.
At the same time, a U.S. submarine, the USS Michigan, had reportedly docked in South Korea as a show of force.
U.S. military readiness for war
In a similar gesture, North Korea's state media said that their military would be ready to bring an end to "U.S. scheming" and what they refer to as "nuclear blackmail." They also bragged about their military precision, their miniaturized nuclear weapons, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and their overall military might.
Blasting News has reported on U.S.
Blasting News has reported on U.S. military options reviewed by the White House's National Security Council for solutions to North Korea, which were provided to the President before his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago in early April.
But Blasting News also reported on the U.S. capability -- or lack thereof -- of being able to protect the U.S. from long-range ballistic missiles. It was also reported that President Trump held a private briefing on the White House grounds on Wednesday with the entire Senate over the situation with North Korea. And while it was supposed to reveal sensitive information, Senators said there was nothing new provided that the newspapers (or media outlets such as Blasting News) hadn't already revealed.
