What can the US do to fight North Korean aggression?
Fox News contributor Rob O'Neill provides insight
With national pride flying as high as one of its recent intercontinental ballistic missile tests, North Korea threatened the United States -- again -- on Thursday, warning with typical hyperbolic abandon that the rogue regime would soon send "unexpected 'gift packages," claiming America is "on the knife's edge of life and death" and slamming the Trump administration.
Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of North Korea's ruling party, issued the threat in a column titled "Heed the Warning of Juche Korea" in which the authors asserted the Trump administration is being forced to "wave a white flag" amid tensions with Pyongyang.
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North Korea's launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, ICBM, in North Korea's northwest, Tuesday, July 4, 2017. (AP)
"Every minute and every second, the new reality that U.S. mainland is on the knife's edge of life and death is forcing U.S. administration to wave a white flag and fundamentally change her North Korea policy," the piece stated.
"It is not the denuclearization of N. Korea, but the security of U.S. mainland which should be the top priority of Trump administration," it added.
Consistent with the other threats the country has issued before, North Korea cautioned that another so-called "gift package" would be heading its way to the "American bastards."
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reacts with scientists and technicians of the DPRK Academy of Defence Science after the test-launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang July 5, 2017 (Reuters)
"If U.S. still refuses to accept such a realistic demand and doggedly pursue hostile policy against North Korea in order to save face, she will receive unexpected 'gift packages' which we will continue to send," according to the column.
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Experts say the "gift packages" North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promises are more planned missile tests, which are banned by the United Nations. Kim previously urged scientists to continue to "frequently send big and small 'gift packages' to the Yankees as ever so that they would not feel weary."
North Korea's latest threat comes as U.S. Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy said the U.S. and its allies are prepared to use "rapid, lethal and overwhelming force," if necessary, against the regime.
"North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," O'Shaughnessy said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un applauds during a military parade marking the 105th birth anniversary of the country's founding father, Kim Il Sung, in Pyongyang April 15, 2017. (Reuters)
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North Korea's latest ICBM test was the longest such test in the history of Pyongyang, flying five minutes longer than its previous launch. The missile flew 2,300 miles into space, about 600 miles higher than the July 4 ICBM. Experts believe it could reach a substantial portion of the U.S. mainland.
Earlier this week, the U.S. military also conducted a "successful" test of its THAAD anti-ballistic missile system. The medium-range target ballistic missile was launched over the Pacific Ocean and the THAAD weapon system tracked and intercepted it in Kodiak.