US MILITARY IS LOCKED AND LOADED..TRUMP WARNS NORTH KOREA

U.S. President Donald Trump ramped up his war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after a week of tensions that has roiled global markets.

“Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely,” Trump tweeted on Friday. Earlier, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said the U.S. president is “driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war.”

Trump is increasing pressure on North Korea and has vowed to unleash “fire and fury” on Kim’s regime as it threatens to fire missiles near the Pacific island of Guam, where the U.S. has a military base. The saber rattling has shaken global markets. Asian stocks fell the most in eight months today, the CBOE Volatility Index climbed to the highest level since Trump’s election victory and gold hit a two-month high.

The crisis has gripped much of the region. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said today his government would back the U.S. if North Korea attacked. Japan moved missile interceptors into position after the Guam threat, the Nikkei newspaper reported. China, North Korea’s only major ally, called on both countries to avoid the “old road” of escalating hostilities.