U.S. will ‘totally destroy’ North Korea if threatened
UNITED NATIONS — President Donald Trump brought a characteristically confrontational message to the United Nations as he vowed to “totally destroy North Korea” if it threatened the United States or its allies and denounced the nuclear agreement with Iran as “an embarrassment” that he may abandon.
In his first address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump framed the conflicts with “rogue regimes” like North Korea, Iran and Venezuela as a test of the international system. With typically bombastic flourishes like vowing to crush “loser terrorists” and labelling North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, “Rocket Man,” Trump at times dispensed with the restrained rhetoric many American presidents use at the United Nations.
“If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph,” he said as the audience of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and diplomats remained largely stonefaced. “When decent people and nations become bystanders to history, the forces of destruction only gather power and strength.” He asserted that some parts of the world “are going to hell.”
Trump singled out North Korea for his harshest words, broadening his indictment of the Pyongyang government beyond just its pursuit of nuclear weapons to its treatment of its own people and captured foreigners.
“No nation on earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles,” Trump said. “The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”
He went on to assail the Iran agreement, which was negotiated by President Barack Obama and leaders of five other powers and ratified by the U.N. Security Council to curb Tehran’s nuclear program for a decade in exchange for lifting international sanctions. “The Iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into,” Trump told the U.N. audience. “Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States, and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it, believe me.”
The tough words cheered the delegation from Israel, whose prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and advisers applauded. “In over 30 years in my experience with the U.N., I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech,” Netanyahu said.