North Korea Says It Has the Right to Shoot Down U.S. Warplanes
North Korea threatened on Monday to shoot down American warplanes even if they were not in the country’s airspace, stating that President Trump’s comments suggesting he would eradicate North Korea and its leaders were “a declaration of war.”
The warning, made by Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho of North Korea in New York after a week of United Nations General Assembly meetings, escalated the invective-laced exchanges with Mr. Trump and appeared to further preclude the possibility of a diplomatic exit from the biggest foreign crisis the administration has faced.
Administration officials denied that the United States had declared war on the isolated, nuclear-armed country of 25 million people and did not immediately comment on the threat to shoot down American planes.
