Washington - North Korea’s “words and
actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United
States,” US President Donald Trump said on Twitter in his
first reaction after Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most
powerful nuclear test on Sunday.
“North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great
threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but
with little success,” Trump said in a second tweet.
North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test. Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017
The White House said Trump's national security team was
"monitoring this closely" and that the president would convene a
meeting of his advisers later on Sunday.
North Korea said it had tested an advanced hydrogen bomb for
a long-range missile on Sunday, setting off a manmade earthquake
near the test. Japanese and South Korean officials said that
tremor was about 10 times more powerful than the one picked up
after the nation's last nuclear test a year ago.
There was no independent confirmation that the detonation
was a hydrogen bomb rather than a less powerful atomic weapon of
the kind Pyongyang has tested in the past.
Trump also rebuked South Korea on Twitter, saying "their
talk of appeasement with North Korea won't work, they (North
Korea) only understand one thing."
South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017
US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Sunday that he
would put together a package of new sanctions to potentially cut
off all global trade with North Korea.
"If countries want to do business with the United States,
they obviously will be working with our allies and others to cut
off North Korea economically," Mnuchin said on Fox News.
Senator Jeff Flake, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that the
United States had no good options when it came to North Korea.
..North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2017
“Obviously the test yesterday shows they are further along
than everyone figured,” said Flake, a Republican. He said
sanctions did not appear to have slowed the advance of North
Korea’s nuclear program, “but I don’t think harsh rhetoric does
either.”
Often critical of Trump, Flake declined to address his
comment about South Korea's "talk of appeasement," but said: "I
think South Korea will be with us whatever we decide."