Trump tells N. Korea to ‘get their act together’

BEDMINSTER, N.J. • President Donald Trump again escalated his rhetoric about North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs Thursday, threatening that “things will happen to them like they never thought possible” should the isolated country attack the United States or its allies.

Trump told reporters here that his warning of “fire and fury” Tuesday may not have been “tough enough,” but even as he stepped up his brinksmanship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the president sought to reassure anxious people around the world that he has the situation under control.

“Frankly, the people who were questioning that statement, was it too tough? Maybe it wasn’t tough enough,” Trump said. “They’ve been doing this to our country for a long time, for many years, and it’s about time that somebody stuck up for the people of this country and for the people of other countries.”

“So, if anything, maybe that statement wasn’t tough enough,” Trump added.

Asked what would have been tougher than “fire and fury,” Trump replied only, “You’ll see. You’ll see.” In Twitter comments Wednesday that were clearly directed at North Korea, he warned that the U.S. nuclear arsenal was “now far stronger and more powerful than ever before.”

In his newest remarks, Trump would not say whether he is considering a preemptive strike on North Korea. He said he remained open to negotiating with Pyongyang, but that talks over the years had done little to halt the country’s nuclear program.

“What they’ve been doing, what they’ve been getting away with, is a tragedy and it can’t be allowed,” Trump said.

The nuclear crisis has left leaders and people around the world jittery, but Trump said it was North Korea that should be nervous.

“The people of this country should be very comfortable, and I will tell you this: If North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about attack of anybody that we love or we represent or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous,” he said. “Things will happen to them like they never thought possible.”

Trump’s comments came during a seven-minute news conference on the steps of the grand clubhouse of his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is spending most of his 17-day working vacation. He was flanked by Vice-President Pence, who nodded approvingly, but didn’t speak.

Trump and Pence were scheduled to attend a security briefing along with White House chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

The session comes after two days of mixed messages emanating from the Trump administration.

On Tuesday, Trump warned that further provocations from Pyongyang “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.” His language was improvised, and had not been reviewed by his national security advisers or political aides.

The North Koreans called his statement “a load of nonsense” and threatened to fire missiles over the waters off Guam, a strategically located Pacific island and home to U.S. military bases.

The North said Thursday it is finalizing a plan to fire four of its Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan and into waters around the tiny island, which hosts 7,000 U.S. military personnel on two main bases and has a population of 160,000.

North Korea said the plan could be sent to Kim for approval within a week or so.

Asked Thursday morning whether Trump’s thinking on the North Korean nuclear crisis had evolved in the wake of the threat to Guam, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said it had not.

“Certainly nothing has changed in the president’s thinking,” Sanders told reporters. “He’s made clear how he feels on that front.”

In separate remarks made late Wednesday but not released by the Pentagon until Thursday, Secretary of Defence James Mattis emphasized that current U.S. policy is focused on diplomacy.

“Of course there’s a military option,” Mattis said. But “we want to use diplomacy. That’s where we’ve been, that’s where we are right now and that’s where we hope to remain.”