President Donald Trump took to Twitter Saturday to offer yet another cryptic message about North Korea, saying “only one thing will work” to end the crisis — but not saying that one thing might be.
“Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid…,” the POTUS tweeted.
“…hasn’t worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings [sic] fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!” he continued in an additional 140 characters.
Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017
…hasn't worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017
He did not say, exactly, what that “one thing” is but his increasingly belligerent rhetoric about North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has sparked concern worldwide.
Over the past several months, North Korea has upped its testing of mid-range ballistic missiles designed to carry a nuclear payload and recently flew one over Japan for the second time in two months.
Last Saturday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he was in communication with North Korea in hopes of easing the tensions and seeking peace through diplomacy.
“The whole situation is a bit overheated right now. If North Korea would stop firing its missiles, that would calm things down a lot,” Tillerson said at a press conference following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “We ask, ‘Would you like to talk?’ We have lines of communications to Pyongyang — we’re not in a dark situation, a blackout,” he added. “We have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang.”
But the following day, Trump fired back, calling Tillerson’s diplomatic outreach to North Korea a “waste of time.”
“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man…” Trump wrote on Twitter. He continued, “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!”
In his first address to the United Nations General Assembly in September, 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.”
Kim responded to Trump’s threat, saying he would “surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.” North Korea’s foreign minister added that Trump’s comment made the possibility of a U.S. mainland missile attack “all that more inevitable.”