Dem senator to North Korea: ‘We will retaliate’

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Monday warned North Korea against attacking the U.S., vowing America would not accept its antagonism.

“North Korea, basically, would do all they can do,” he said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” “They have to understand that we will retaliate. We’re not going to sit back and take it.

“So if they think that they can play their games and that’s just going to continue, for us to hunker down and say, ‘Oh, that’s not that bad’ or ‘that didn’t do much damage,’ I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

{mosads}A senior North Korean official said Monday that the U.S. has created “a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any minute.”

“[North Korea] is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the U.S.,” Kim In Ryong, North Korea’s deputy United Nations ambassador, added from Panmunjom, North Korea.

Kim said the Korean Peninsula has become “the world’s biggest hotspot” due to the “aggressive war drill” being conducted by the U.S. and South Korea there.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that the military has procedures in place for “almost any scenario,” including North Korea attacking the U.S. directly.

“With respect to Korea in particular, that’s been going on for decades,” he said of contingency plans for Pyongyang’s aggression.

North Korea attempted but failed to launch a ballistic missile off its east coast on Sunday amid rising tensions between it and the U.S.

Trump ordered a Navy strike group led by an aircraft carrier to the western Pacific Ocean last week as a show of force while U.S. officials mull increased economic sanctions against North Korea.