Trump praises DPRK leader's decision not to fire missiles towards Guam

A Japan Ground Self Defense Force's Type 90 tank fires during their joint exercise, named Northern Viper 17, with US Marine Corps at Hokudaien exercise area in Eniwa, on the northern island of Hokkaido, Japan, August 16, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-un for a "wise" decision not to fire missiles towards the US territory of Guam, which has eased escalating tension between the two countries.

Reclusive DPRK has made no secret of its plan to develop a missile capable of firing a nuclear warhead at the United States to counter what it perceives as constant US threats of invasion.

Trump warned DPRK last week it would face "fire and fury" if it threatened the United States, prompting DPRK to say it was considering plans to fire missiles towards the Pacific island of Guam.

But DPRK media reported on Tuesday Kim had delayed the decision while he awaited to see what the United States did next.

"Kim Jong-un of DPRK made a very wise and well reasoned decision," Trump wrote on Twitter.

"The alternative would have been both catastrophic and unacceptable!"

North Korea's threat to fire towards Guam had prompted Trump to say earlier that the US military was "locked and loaded" if DPRK acted unwisely.

DPRK has long ignored warnings from the West and from its lone major ally, China, to halt its nuclear and missile tests which it conducts in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

The United States has been hoping China can press DPRK to rein in its weapons programs. The top US general reiterated that in talks in Beijing this week.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford told Fang Fenghui, chief of the Joint Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army, in Beijing that North Korea's weapons programs threatened the entire international community, including China.

"He emphasized that the US and China have the same goal - a denuclearized Korean peninsula achieved through peaceful means ... DPRK actions threaten the economic and military security of China," a US military spokesman said in a statement.

"In the interest of regional stability, he said the US views with growing urgency the need for China to increase pressure on the DPRK regime," the spokesman said.

"Should preferred diplomatic and economic peaceful options fail, General Dunford reiterated America's resolve to use the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies in the Republic of Korea and Japan, as well as the US homeland."