North Korean state media has warned the United States “deserves merciless divine punishment” for “hatching a criminal plot” against Pyongyang. Kim Jong Un was apparently angered by the abrupt cancellation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit. Monday’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper said U.S. special units based in Japan were staging an air drill aimed at “infiltration into Pyongyang,” adding: “We cannot but take a serious note of the double-dealing attitudes of the U.S. as it is busy staging secret drills involving man-killing special units while having a dialogue with a smile on its face.” Negotiations aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula have been deadlocked since Donald Trump’s summit with Kim in June.
