Trump Doubles Down on Threats Against North Korea as Nuclear Tensions Escalate
He added that all parties must assure the North Koreans that they would forgo “any military action against them if North Korea remains peaceful.”
For all the bellicose words, Mr. Trump said on Thursday that he was open to negotiations, as Mr. Tillerson has urged.
He’s not going to go around threatening Guam and he’s not going to threaten the United States
and he’s not going to threaten Japan, and he’s not going to threaten South Korea.
“The American people elected the president.”
But asked about his own equally tough but less colorful statement about North Korea,
issued on Wednesday, Mr. Mattis said, “The rhetoric is up to the president.
So if anything, maybe that statement wasn’t tough enough.”
Mr. Trump noted that North Korea, which has made significant progress toward developing long-range nuclear weapons, responded to his original
warning by threatening to launch a missile strike toward the Pacific island of Guam, an American territory and strategic base.
President Trump said Thursday that his previous “fire and fury” statement directed at North Korea was perhaps “not tough enough.”
BRIDGEWATER, N. J.
Rejecting critics at home and abroad who condemned his earlier warning as reckless saber-rattling, Mr. Trump said North Korea
and its volatile leader, Kim Jong-un, have pushed the United States and the rest of the world for too long.