Trump says US will confront North Korean threats very strongly
U.S. President Donald Trump vowed on Thursday to confront North Korea “very strongly” following its latest missile test and urged nations to show Pyongyang there would be consequences for its weapons program, Reuters reported.
North Korea on Tuesday test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile that some experts believe has the range to reach Alaska and Hawaii and perhaps the U.S. Pacific Northwest. North Korea said it could carry a large nuclear warhead, Reuters added.
Speaking at a news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Trump said North Korea was “a threat, and we will confront it very strongly”.
He said the United States was considering “severe things” for North Korea, but that he would not draw a “red line” of the kind that his predecessor, Barack Obama, had drawn but not enforced on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, according to Reuters.
Trump added: “… they are behaving in a very, very dangerous manner and something will have to be done.”
The issue presents Trump, who took office in January, with perhaps his biggest foreign policy challenge and has put pressure on his relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom Trump had pressed without success to rein in Pyongyang, Reuters added.
The United States said on Wednesday it was ready to use force if necessary to stop North Korea’s nuclear missile program, but U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday the missile test in itself did not bring the parties closer to a war, according to Reuters.
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