United States President Donald Trump escalated his war of words with North Korea on Friday, saying the United States military was ready to respond in case North Korea chooses to “act unwisely”. Trump’s tweet came a day after he had suggested that his “fire and fury” statement was probably not tough enough, AFP reported.
“Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”
On Thursday, Trump had said Pyongyang should be nervous and get its act together.
“If North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about an attack on anybody we love or we represent, or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous,” he told reporters, adding that if they attacked, “things will happen to them like they never thought possible”.
On August 9, Trump had warned Pyongyang that any threat to the country will be met with “fire and fury like the world has never seen”. Hours later, North Korea had dismissed his statement as nonsense and said it was examining a plan to strike the US Pacific territory of Guam with medium- to long-range strategic ballistic missiles.
Trump also told China to step up and do more to pressure North Korea into ending its nuclear weapons program.
Shortly after the president spoke, however, US Defense Secretary James Mattis assured reporters that the nation still preferred a diplomatic approach, and that a war would be “catastrophic”, though the United States was ready to deal with a hostile act from North Korea.
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