Having raged at President Trump's "suicide mission" on Saturday, North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong Ho called for an impromptu press conference this morning following President Trump's extended travel ban, in which the diplomat said that Trump’s recent tweet that DPRK's leadership would not be around much longer amounted to "a declaration of war" and added that North Korea has "every right to take countermeasures against the United States, including to shoot down American jets outside the DPRK's airspace" as part of its right to self-defense under the United Nations charter.

“The UN Charter acknowledges member states’ right of self-defense,” Ri said outside a hotel near the UN headquarters on Monday. “As the United States has declared a war, even though its strategic bombers don’t cross our border, we will come to own all rights to respond for self-defense including shooting down its planes at any time."

“The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country,” Ri added as he was leaving the United Nations after a week of General Assembly meetings 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.”

Referring to Mr. Trump’s assertion that the North Korean leadership may not “be around much longer,” Mr. Ri said that the question of “who would be around much longer will be answered” by North Korea.

As shown in the following clips, Ri did not hold back:

Part 1 of #NorthKorea Foreign Minister speaking to press pic.twitter.com/cWi4LvZ5lF — Minyoung Park (@minyoungpark) September 25, 2017

And again:

Part 2 of #NorthKorea Foreign Minister speaking to press pic.twitter.com/7GxR4u0jTv — Minyoung Park (@minyoungpark) September 25, 2017

His key soundbites below:

"The UN Charter acknowledges member states’ right of self-defense. As the United States has declared a war, even though its strategic bombers don’t cross our border, we will come to own all rights to respond for self-defense including shooting down its planes at any time." "All options are on the table for North Korean response." "The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country."

On Saturday, Ri delivered a speech at the UN General Assembly in which he stressed that North Korea would inevitably target the US mainland with missiles as Trump called Pyongyang's leader a "rocket man" on a suicide mission.

The threat to shoot down US bombers comes as the Pentagon reported on Saturday that several B-1B bombers flew in the international airspace just off the North Korean eastern coast. Chief Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said the move was made to showcase US military options available to Donald Trump.

The reaction to this quasi declaration of war was fast and furious:



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