Seoul/New York — North Korea has been boosting defences on its east coast, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday, after the North said US President Donald Trump had declared war and that it would shoot down US bombers flying near the Korean peninsula. Tension has escalated on the Korean peninsula since North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3, but the rhetoric has reached a new level in recent days with leaders on both sides exchanging threats and insults. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said Trump’s Twitter comments, in which the US leader said Ri and leader Kim Jong-un "won’t be around much longer" if they acted on their threats, amounted to a declaration of war and that Pyongyang had the right to take countermeasures. Yonhap suggested the North was in fact bolstering its defences by moving aircraft to its east coast and taking other measures after US bombers flew close to the Korean peninsula at the weekend. The unverified ...
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