In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, President Donald Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if the rogue nation failed to back down in its increasingly aggressive nuclear maneuvers.
If the U.S. is “forced to defend itself and its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said. He also said that North Korea “threatens the entire world with unthinkable loss of life.”
“Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime,” Trump said of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, repeating an Elton John-themed dig the president has used before, but this time in a formal setting. “It is time for North Korea to realize that the denuclearization is its only acceptable future.”
Trump, referring to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un: “Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime” https://t.co/GTAZY6y6tI pic.twitter.com/sdGgelbksa
— CNN (@CNN) September 19, 2017
“Major portions of the world are in conflict and some in fact are going to hell,” Trump continued, suggesting that it was up to the UN to fix those conflicts. “The powerful people in this room, under the guidance and auspices of the United Nations can solve many of these vicious and complex problems.”
But Trump sees the United States’ share of that cost burden to be unfair. “We pay 22 percent of the entire budget and more,” Trump said.
Trump also spoke of his dislike of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. “Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States, and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it — believe me,” he said. The president is expected to announce extended sanctions relief for Iran later this week, CNN reports.