America “does not seek conflict or confrontation,” but will not run from it either, Trump said in regards to the North Korean threat.
By: AP
President Donald Trump delivered a sharp warning to North Korea Wednesday, telling the rogue nation: “Do not underestimate us. And do not try us.”
In a speech delivered hours after he aborted a visit to the heavily fortified Korean demilitarized zone due to bad weather and fog, Trump said he had a message for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“The weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger,” Trump told an audience of South Korean lawmakers, calling on all nations to join forces “to isolate the brutal regime of North Korea.”
“The world cannot tolerate the menace of a rogue regime that threatens with nuclear devastation,” he said.
Trump addressed the South Korean National Assembly as he closed out his two-day visit to the nation and headed to his next stop, Beijing. He arrived in the Chinese capital in time for afternoon tea with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan.
In the speech, Trump painted a bleak portrait of life in North Korea, describing citizens as bribing government officials to leave the country just so they can work as slaves. He contrasted the poverty and desperation to thriving South Korea.
“North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned. It is a hell that no person deserves,” Trump said.
He said the US will not allow its cities to be threatened with destruction, adding that that, while America “does not seek conflict or confrontation,” it will not run from it, either.
A Very Different Administration
“The regime has interpreted America’s past restraint as weakness. This would be a fatal miscalculation,” Trump said. “This is a very different administration than the United States has had in the past.”
He also called on all nations to downgrade diplomatic and economic ties with the North and fully implement a series of UN Security Council measures, specifically calling out Russia and China, whose leaders he will meet in coming days.
On Tuesday, Trump’s first day on the Korean Peninsula, he had signaled a willingness to negotiate as he urged North Korea to “come to the table” and “make a deal” over its nuclear weapons program.
He also said he’d seen “a lot of progress” in dealing with Pyongyang, though he stopped short of saying whether he wanted direct talks.
“It makes sense for North Korea to come to the table and make a deal that is good for the people of North Korea and for the world,” Trump said at a news conference with South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in.
He also sounded an optimistic note on disagreements with the North, saying confidently, if vaguely: “Ultimately, it’ll all work out.”
It was a striking shift in tone for a president who for months had issued increasingly dire threats to answer any hostile North Korean action with “fire and fury.” In a recent speech at the United Nations, Trump said he would “totally destroy” the nation, if necessary, and has derided Kim as “little Rocket Man.”
North Korea has fired more than a dozen missiles this year but none in nearly two months. Analysts caution against reading too much into the pause.