NUCLEAR MELTDOWN: N.K. THREATENS H-BOMB IN PACIFIC Kim Jong Un Also Vowed To Tame ‘Mentally Deranged’ Donald Trump....Asian markets rattled by latest North Korean nuclear threat

Published: Sept 21, 2017 11:05 p.m. ET

Equity markets across the Asia-Pacific region were down on Friday, with stocks in Japan reversing early gains following fresh threats from North Korea, while China-related stocks declined on a credit-rating downgrade.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un makes a statement
regarding President Donald Trump's U.N. speech in this
photo released Friday.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said late Thursday in New York that the country may consider a nuclear test of “unprecedented scale” in the Pacific Ocean, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

Those comments came shortly after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he was considering the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure” in response to President Donald Trump’s warning that the U.S. would annihilate North Korea if forced to defend itself or its allies.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un

The haven Japanese yen spiked in morning trade following the report of the nuclear-test threat, with the U.S. dollar-yen JPYUSD, +0.593854%   pair falling to a low of 111.97 before recovering to around 112.06. The U.S. dollar was still down around 0.3% from Thursday’s Japan market close.

Gains in the yen sent the Nikkei Stock Average NIK, -0.33%   down 0.2%, after earlier being up as much, as a stronger currency would hurt the country’s key export stocks. In South Korea, the Kospi SEU, -0.67%   also extended declines and was down 0.4%. more