Trump warns of military option

President Donald Trump warned North Korea yesterday that any US military option would be "devastating" for Pyongyang, but said the use of force was not Washington's first option to deal with the country's ballistic and nuclear weapons programme.

"We are totally prepared for the second option, not a preferred option," Trump said at a White House news conference, referring to military force. "But if we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that, devastating for North Korea. That's called the military option. If we have to take it, we will."

Bellicose statements by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent weeks have created fears that a miscalculation could lead to action with untold ramifications, particularly since Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3.

Despite the increased tension, the United States has not detected any change in North Korea's military posture reflecting an increased threat, the top US military officer said yesterday.

The assessment by Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, about Pyongyang's military stance was in contrast to a South Korean lawmaker who said Pyongyang had boosted defences on its east coast.

"While the political space is clearly very charged right now, we haven't seen a change in the posture of North Korean forces, and we watch that very closely," Dunford told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his reappointment to his post. In terms of a sense of urgency, "North Korea certainly poses the greatest threat today," Dunford testified.

A US official speaking on the condition of anonymity said satellite imagery had detected a small number of North Korean military aircraft moving to the North's east coast.

However the official said the activity did not change their assessment of Pyongyang's military posture.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on Tuesday accused Trump of declaring war on the North and threatened that Pyongyang would shoot down US warplanes flying near the Korean Peninsula after American bombers flew close to it on Sunday. Ri was reacting to Trump's Twitter comments that Kim and Ri "won't be around much longer" if they acted on their threats toward the US.

North Korea has been working to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the US mainland, which Trump has said he will never allow.

Dunford said Pyongyang will have a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile "soon," and it was only a matter of a "very short time".

"We clearly have postured our forces to respond in the event of a provocation or a conflict," the general said, adding that the US has taken "all proper measures to protect our allies" including South Korean and Japan.

"It would be an incredibly provocative thing for them to conduct a nuclear test in the Pacific as they have suggested, and I think the North Korean people would have to realise how serious that would be, not only for the United States but for the international community," Dunford said.

South Korean lawmaker Lee Cheol Uoo, briefed by the country's spy agency, said North Korea was bolstering its defences by moving aircraft to its east coast and taking other measures after the flight by US bombers.

Lee said the US appeared to have disclosed the flight route intentionally because North Korea seemed to be unaware.

US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers, escorted by fighter jets, flew east of North Korea in a show of force after the heated exchange of rhetoric between Trump and Kim.

South Korean President Moon Jae In urged Kim Jong Un to resume military talks and reunions of families split by the 1950-53 Korean War to ease tension. "Like I've said multiple times before, if North Korea stops its reckless choices, the table for talks and negotiations always remains open," he said.

The US and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce and not a peace treaty.