North Korea moves their aircraft to east coast, as they say the US has “declared war”

Twitter refuses to remove provocative yet “newsworthy” threats

The ongoing show of power online and exchange of fiery salvos could reportedly be pushing North Korea and the United States closer to an accidental war.

Latest media reports suggest that North Korea has moved military aircraft to its east coast and begun boosting defences after claiming that US has declared a war on their country. Pyongyang has also threatened to shoot down American bombers flying near the Korean peninsula “even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country”.

Tensions escalated earlier this week when North Korea’s Foreign Minister, Ri Yong Ho, announced that the US President, Donald Trump, had “declared a war” on his country when Trump tweeted that the foreign minister “echoed” the thoughts of Kim Jong-un and North Korea “won’t be around for much longer”.

While Ri’s interpretation of Trump’s tweet was promptly dismissed by the White House, North Korea has continued boosting defenses on its east coast, states South Korea’s Yonhap news agency today.

The crisis does not end here. Speaking to CNN today, Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said: “Our job as the Department of Defense is as you know is to make sure that the President is provided military options, we’ll continue to do that, and we have a deep arsenal of military options to provide the President so then he can decide how he wants to deal with North Korea and the regime.”

“We are postured and we are ready to fight tonight,” he added.

Meanwhile, China’s ambassador to the UN, Liu Jieyi, told Reuters today that they want things to calm down: “It’s getting too dangerous and it’s in nobody’s interest.”

Tensions have been rising since North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on 3 September, which was followed by US warplanes flying close to North Korea’s coast in a show of force. The hostility was further fuelled by exchange of provocative tweets.

Twitter has refused to take down the tweet by Donald Trump where he threatens North Korea, saying that it is “newsworthy” and in the public interest. Twitter’s terms of service clearly forbid using the platform to make violent threats — either directly or indirectly. Media reports suggest that Twitter will now be updating its public policy for tweets so that they remain in the public domain.