South Korea has sought to tamp down the escalating tensions between North Korea and the US over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme, telling its northern neighbour that the door to dialogue is still open.
The diplomatic move, a contrast to Donald Trump’s threat of “fire and fury like the world has never seen”, came hours after Pyongyang raised the stakes by announcing it was “seriously examining” a plan to “interdict” US forces based in the Pacific territory of Guam with four ballistic missile strikes nearby.
General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the North Korean army’s strategic force, was quoted as saying the missiles would fly over Japan and hit the waters 30km-40km from Guam after travelling 3,356.7km for 1,065 seconds.