Trump: Military solutions ‘locked & loaded’ against North Korea
US President Donald Trump has again added fuel to the fire amid the North Korea crisis, saying that if Pyongyang “acts unwisely,” Washington has military solutions “locked and loaded.”
“Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely,” Trump tweeted on Friday.
The US president added that he hopes that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “will find another path.”
Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2017
#USAF B-1B Lancer #bombers on Guam stand ready to fulfill USFK’s #FightTonight mission if called upon to do so https://t.co/O3oVeFrNrGpic.twitter.com/IAm2qLwcWY
— U.S. Pacific Command (@PacificCommand) August 11, 2017
“I hope that they are going to fully understand the gravity of what I said. And what I said is what I mean,” Trump told reporters on Friday afternoon, while on a working vacation at his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
The president brushed off the criticism of his rhetoric by saying that “tens of millions of people in this country” are happy with him standing up for the US and its allies.
If Kim Jong-un threatened Guam, the US or any allies again, “he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments come a day after US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that Washington and its allies “now possess the most precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on Earth.”
“The DPRK [North Korea] regime’s actions will continue to be grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates,” Mattis said
Tensions in the region continue to escalate, following a new round of UN sanctions against North Korea earlier in August, in response to fresh missile tests by Pyongyang.
In July, North Korea claimed to have test-fired two intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). Russia, however, has said that the missiles were intermediate range. In response to the tests, the US and South Korea repeatedly fired surface-to-surface missiles into neutral waters close to Pyongyang.
Trump has also said that any threats from North Korea “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Pyongyang, however, said it was working on a plan to launch a medium-range ballistic missile at US forces in Guam, some 3,200km from North Korea.
On Thursday, Trump continued, saying that his “fire and fury” warning to North Korea may not have been “tough enough.” Pyongyang should be “very, very nervous” if it does anything to the US, Trump told reporters.
