US has not declared war on North Korea and the suggestion is ‘absurd’, says White House

North Korea said Trump’s comments are a declaration of war (Picture: AP)

The White House says America has not declared war on North Korea.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a press briefing on Monday afternoon: ‘We have not declared war on North Korea and the suggestion of that is absurd.’

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It comes after the regime’s foreign minister said Donald Trump’s comments are a ‘declaration of war’ and Pyongyang has the right to shoot down US strategic bombers.

He added that they will strike even if they aren’t in North Korean airspace.

Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said: ‘The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country.

‘Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country.’

US bombers and fighter escorts have flown to the farthest point north of the border between North and South Korea by any such American aircraft this century in a show of military might, the Pentagon said earlier today.

Defense Department spokesman Dana White said in a statement: ‘This mission is a demonstration of US resolve and a clear message that the president has many military options to defeat any threat.

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‘North Korea’s weapons program is a grave threat to the Asia-Pacific region and the entire international community. We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the US homeland and our allies.’

In the last week Kim Jong-un has said that Donald Trump would ‘pay dearly’ for threatening to ‘totally destroy’ North Korea if the US was forced to defend itself or its allies against an attack.

Kim’s foreign minister told reporters this week that the North’s response to Trump ‘could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific’.

Meanwhile, North Korea has been hit by an earthquake as suspected nuclear testing continues.