President Donald Trump

mocks North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, calling him “Rocket Man,” while White House advisers said the isolated nation would face destruction unless it shelves its weapons programs and bellicose threats.

SOMERSET, N.J. — President Donald Trump on Sunday mocked the leader of nuclear-armed North Korea as “Rocket Man” while White House advisers said the isolated nation would face destruction unless it shelves its weapons programs and bellicose threats.

Trump’s chief diplomat held out hope the North would return to the baraddress gaining table, though the president’s envoy to the United Nations said the Security Council had “pretty much exhausted” all its options.

Kim Jong Un has pledged to continue the North’s programs, saying his country is nearing its goal of “equilibrium” in military force with the United States.

North Korea will be high on the agenda for world leaders this week at the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.

Trump is scheduled to the world body on Tuesday.

Trump, who spent the weekend at his New Jersey golf club, tweeted that he and South Korean President Moon Jae-in discussed North Korea by telephone Saturday.

Asked about Trump’s description of Kim, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said “Rocket Man” was “a new one and I think maybe for the president.” But, he said, “that’s where the rockets are coming from. Rockets, though, we ought to probably not laugh too much about because they do represent a great threat to all.”

McMcaster said Kim is “going to have to give up his nuclear weapons because the president has said he’s not going to tolerate this regime threatening the United States and our citizens with a nuclear weapon.”

Asked if that meant Trump would launch a military strike, McMaster said “he’s been very clear about that, that all options are on the table.”

On CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. strategy is to deny North Korea nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them, but he stressed that the contest is what he called the “four nos.”

“The four nos being that we do not seek regime change, we do not seek a regime collapse, we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula, and we do not seek a reason to send our forces north of the demilitarized zones,” Tillerson said.

If diplomacy fails to coerce North Korea to the negotiating table, he said, “our military option will be the only one left. So all of this is backed up by a very strong and resolute military option. But be clear, we seek a peaceful solution to this.”

Tillerson said the message is designed to bring about cooperation from China.