FOREIGN POLICY/NORTH KOREA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “North Korea is a country prepared for conflict.
Still technically at war with its southern neighbor, ordinary North Koreans are warned to be in a state of constant vigilance to threats from the outside, particularly from the US.
Those fears seemed to be confirmed this month, after US President Donald Trump launched a surprise strike on a Syrian airfield and dispatched a naval battle group — which he described as ‘an armada’ — to northern Asia.
Trump’s saber-rattling — he has accused Pyongyang of ‘looking for trouble’ — is familiar to consumers of North Korean state media, who have been warned for decades by their leaders of imminent US attack and attempted regime change.
‘The aggressive acts of war on the part of the United States are getting increasingly reckless,’ a North Korean official told CNN in Pyongyang this week.
‘In response, we will continue to strengthen our self-defense capability.’ “
-Will Ripley and James Griffiths, “Trump’s saber-rattling is North Korea’s propaganda dream come true,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 12, 2017 8:54am