North Korea

HONG KONG – As the U.S. and its allies look to impose even stricter measures against North Korea, leader Kim Jong Un could find inspiration from oppressive regimes of yesteryear in Nazi Germany and Apartheid-era South Africa.

Both managed to survive oil blockades with the help of liquefying coal, a technology that dates back to the 1920s. North Korea has ample reserves of the fuel, at one point leading the world in anthracite coal exports.

(CNN) As tensions continue to ratchet up with North Korea, CNN has learned that the US is considering shooting down a North Korean ballistic missile even if it does not directly threaten the US or its allies.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Defense Secretary James Mattis said North Korea is "intentionally doing provocations that seem to press against the envelope for just how far can they push without going over some kind of a line in their minds that would make them vulnerable."

An official directly familiar with options planning within the Trump administration told CNN the question that now needs to be answered is whether North Korea's missile program has progressed to the level of being such an inherent threat that the Pentagon would recommend targeting a missile even if its trajectory did not indicate it would hit the US or its allies. The official declined to speak on the record because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The discussion of whether to shoot down a North Korean missile comes as US intelligence has assessed that North Korea's KN-17 (Hwasong 12) intermediate range ballistic missile has proven so successful in recent flight tests that Pyongyang now counts on it as part of its strategic deterrence against the US, according to a US official familiar with the latest intelligence analysis. Because the KN-17 appears to be successful, the official says the US has assessed that it is likely North Korea will turn back to additional testing of the KN-20 (aka Hwasong 14) intercontinental ballistic missile to see if they can improve its performance.

While US officials have long said the military maintains a full range of options for dealing with North Korea, the notion of shooting down a missile has largely centered on conducting an operation if the missile were to directly threaten the US or its allies. There has been particular concern since Kim Jong Un recently threatened the US territory of Guam.

On July 4, North Korea conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which it claims could reach "anywhere in the world" and conducted a second test on July 28.

The idea of shooting down a missile even if it is not a direct threat is not new. But with two recently launched North Korean missiles flying over northern Japan, the potential for having to consider a shoot-down without a direct threat remains very real, according to one senior defense official.

President Donald Trump, while addressing the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, warned Kim Jong Un that he would not survive an attack by the United States: "The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime."

Members of the administration have repeatedly emphasized that a range of military options are on the table and Mattis said Monday that the US possess military options that would not put Seoul at risk of a North Korean counterattack with the potential to kill tens of thousands of civilians.

Asked at an off-camera briefing at the Pentagon if there are military options that would not put Seoul at "grave risk?" He answered: "Yes there are, but I will not go into details."

Mattis would not clarify if the options he was referring to are kinetic- meaning strikes using conventional weapons.

The Pentagon is looking at potential covert cyberattack options. But other non-kinetic options could include a show of force in the air or on land in the region or increasing the US military presence in the area by deploying more ships or troops.

He did confirm that he had discussed the option of putting tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, an idea rejected by South Korea's President last week. Several Pentagon officials say Mattis was not signaling that tactical nuclear weapons are likely to be placed in South Korea.

And the situation remains tense with Mattis stating: "I believe that there is always the potential for miscalculation by the DPRK leader."

Japan must brace itself for the possible launch of a nuclear-armed North Korean missile over its territory if the regime carries out a threat to test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean, Japan’s defence minister has warned.

Itsunori Onodera said such a test could involve a nuclear device mounted on a medium-range or intercontinental ballistic missile.

“We cannot deny the possibility it may fly over our country,” Onodera said, hours after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, said Donald Trump would “pay dearly” for threatening to destroy his regime.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in an extraordinary and direct rebuke, called President Donald Trump "deranged" and said he will "pay dearly" for his threats, a possible indication of more powerful weapons tests on the horizon.

Hours later, North Korea's foreign minister reportedly said his country may test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean to fulfill Kim's vow to take the "highest-level" action against the United States.

Kim, in his statement, said Trump is "unfit to hold the prerogative of supreme command of a country." He also described the U.S. president as "a rogue and a gangster fond of playing with fire."

The dispatch was unusual in that it was written in the first person, albeit filtered through the North's state media, which are part of propaganda efforts meant to glorify Kim. South Korea's government said it was the first such direct address to the world by any North Korean leader.

Some analysts saw a clear sign that North Korea would ramp up its already brisk pace of weapons testing, which has included missiles meant to target U.S. forces throughout Asia and the U.S. mainland.

"I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech calling for totally destroying the DPRK," said the statement carried by North's official Korean Central News Agency on Friday morning.

...The statement by Kim Jong Un responded to Trump's combative speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday where he mocked Kim as a "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission," and said that if "forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."

Kim characterized Trump's speech to the world body as "unprecedented rude nonsense."

He said Trump's remarks "have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last."

Kim said he is "thinking hard" about his response and that he would "tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire."

China is imposing new limits on trade with North Korea after the isolated country's latest nuclear test.

China's Ministry of Commerce said Saturday it would limit refined petroleum exports starting Oct. 1 and ban the import of North Korean textiles immediately. It would ban exports of liquefied natural gas to the North immediately as well.

China accounts of about 90 percent North Korea's trade, according to The Associated Press. The BBC estimates the textile ban will cost the North more than $700 million per year.

"Textiles are believed to be the North's biggest source of foreign revenue following rounds of U.N. sanctions under which Beijing cut off purchases of coal, iron ore, seafood and other goods," the AP says.

“The persistent and vicious blockade and sanctions against the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) are not only hampering the endeavors for the protection and promotion of the rights of the child but also seriously threatening their right to survival,” he said, calling for sanctions to be lifted.

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously imposed nine rounds of sanctions on North Korea since 2006, the latest earlier this month capping fuel supplies to the isolated state.

Han said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un - denounced by U.S. President Donald Trump as “Rocket Man” - “personally guides the construction in different parts of the country of schoolchildren’s palaces, children’s hospitals, baby homes, children’s homes, and primary and secondary boarding schools and works with devotion for the well-being of the young generation”.

South Korea approved a plan on Thursday to send $8 million worth of aid to North Korea as China warned the crisis on the divided Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day and the war of words between Pyongyang and Washington continued.

The U.N. panel asked how North Korea’s “songbun” (caste system) that ranks citizens based on family loyalty to the ruling dynasty affected children’s access to education, health and food. The North Korean delegation replied that this was an “imaginary concept” invented by hostile forces.

Human Rights Watch has called on the rights panel to press North Korea’s delegation on cases of child sexual abuse, which the New York-based group said it had documented.

“The (North Korean government) report was silent on the issue of sexual abuse so the delegation was asked to provide data,” read a U.N. summary of the hearing.

North Korea’s delegation said that forced child labor did not exist in the country and was banned, and that the maximum duration of young people’s work in agricultural fields was limited to three weeks per year.

“In response to a question on the use of the Internet, the delegation explained that there was public control of this medium in order to give preference to access to positive information for children. In addition, all children had access to the (North Korean internal) Intranet,” the summary said.

The committee will issue its conclusions on Oct. 4.

US bombers have flown close to North Korea's east coast to demonstrate the military options available to defeat any threat, the Pentagon has said.

It said the flight was the farthest north of the demilitarised zone between the Koreas that any US fighter jet or bomber had flown in the 21st Century.

Tensions have risen recently over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

At the UN, North Korea's foreign minister said US President Donald Trump was on a "suicide mission".

Ri Yong-ho's comments to the General Assembly mimicked Mr Trump's remarks at the UN on Tuesday, when he called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a "rocket man on a suicide mission".

Mr Ri added that "insults" by Mr Trump - who was, he said, "mentally deranged and full of megalomania" - were an "irreversible mistake making it inevitable" that North Korean rockets would hit the US mainland.

Mr Trump, the foreign minister said, would "pay dearly" for his speech, in which he also said he would "totally destroy" North Korea if the US was forced to defend itself or its allies.

The US president responded to the speech on Twitter by saying Mr Ri and Mr Kim " won't be around much longer " if they continue their rhetoric.

President Donald Trump’s warnings and threats directed towards North Korea constitute a “declaration of war,” the repressive communist state’s foreign minister said Monday.

“Last weekend, Trump claimed that our leadership wouldn’t be around much longer, and hence, at last, he declared war on our country,” North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho said in New York Monday. “Given the fact that this comes from someone that is currently holding the seat of the united states presidency, this is clearly a declaration of war.”

Trump has met North Korea’s recent campaign of ballistic missile and nuclear device tests with harsh rhetoric, pledging never to allow the regime of Kim Jong Un to obtain a nuclear weapon capable of striking the continental U.S. and pointedly refusing to take military action off the table.

He devoted much of his speech at last week’s United Nations General Assembly to warning North Korea that the U.S. would “totally destroy” the country if necessary.