President Trump said he will not be “happy” if North Korea conducts another nuclear test and would not rule out taking military action against the rogue regime.
“I would not be happy,” the president said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” in an interview that aired Sunday. “If he does a nuclear test, I will not be happy. And I can tell you also, I don’t believe that the president of China, who is a very respected man, will be happy either.”
Pressed on whether that would lead to a military strike, Trump said: “I don’t know. I mean, we’ll see.”
His comments come as North Korean President Kim Jong Un test fired a mid-range missile on Saturday that exploded over land shortly after being launched.
Trump has enlisted Chinese President Xi Jinping to pressure North Korea to cease testing rockets and curtail its nuclear ambition.
He has also dispatched an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson to the waters off the Korean peninsula as a show of force in face of Pyongyang’s continuing belligerence.
“He’s going to have to do what he has to do. But he understands we’re not going to be very happy. And I will tell you, a man that I’ve gotten to like and respect – the president of China, President Xi – I believe has been putting pressure on him also,” Trump said in the interview. “But so far, perhaps nothing’s happened and perhaps it has. This was a small missile. This was not a big missile. This was not a nuclear test, which he was expected to do three days ago. We’ll see what happens.”
North Korea has attempted at least nine missile launches since Trump’s inauguration in January. It has also conducted five nuclear tests since October 2006.