North Korea has been feeding into the World War 3 fears of the international community with its refusal to shut down its nuclear development programme.
Now US Vice President Mike Pence warned North Korea the United States is ready to “stand up” to the murderous regime until it stops being a threat to world peace.
He said: “The United States of America does not stand with murderous dictatorships. We stand up to murderous dictatorships.
“We will keep standing strong until North Korea stops threatening our country, our allies or until they abandon their nuclear and ballistic missiles once and for all.”
North Korea leader Kim Jong-un used his New Year’s address to announce his arsenal of deadly nuclear weapons is ready to strike Donald Trump and the United States.
While US intelligence services do not believe the despot leader’s threats, others are more worried about the prospect of World War 3 igniting from the war of words between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.
Mr Trump’s right-hand man added that the escalating tensions between Washington and Pyongyang had led to the end of a long-lasting period of “strategic patience” because of North Korea’s repeated threats towards the US and its allies.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr Pence continued: “In the wake of provocation and threats against the United States and our allies we have made it clear to North Korea that the era of strategic patience is over.”The Vice President’s warning comes after American lawyer Jim Rickards predicted President Trump could be ready to launch an attack on North Korea as early as March.
Mr Rickards said that in a meeting he had with CIA director Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor to the President General McMaster, it emerged that the threat of a nuclear war by the hands of North Korea was imminent.
He said: “I give a 70 percent probability to a US attack, what we’d call a preventive war that we started but we’re doing it to prevent existential threats to us, to the United States, before the end of March.
“Mike Pompeo said that it would be imprudent to assume that it would take North Korea more than five months to have the ability to threaten the United States.
“We know he has atomic bombs, hydrogens bombs. We know he has immediate range missiles, ballistic missiles and ICBM, so those two things are known.
“So if they have five months and that’s the window and they can’t have it, but North Korea is persisting, there is no sign is either going to stand down or end his missile programme, therefore we’re heading for war.”