Donald Trump takes aim at North Korea, says country has been ‘behaving badly’

Donald Trump took aim at North Korea Friday warning the country had been “behaving badly,” while his administration said military force is an option to deal with any threat from the North’s weapons program.

Trump wrote on Twitter Friday saying that North Korea has been “playing” the U.S. and “China has done little to help!”

Trump’s comments comes just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said “all options are on the table when dealing with a potential threat from North Korea and its weapons program.”

Tillerson met Friday with his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se and its acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn on the second leg of a three-nation trip which began in Japan and will end in China.

“North Korea has nothing to fear from the United States. But this 20 years of talking has brought us to the point we are today,” Tillerson told reporters. “Let me be very clear, the policy of strategic patience has ended. We are exploring a new range of diplomatic security and economic measures, all options are on the table.”

North Korea to U.S.: expect ‘merciless’ strikes if you infringe on our dignity

The secretary of state noted that North Korea doesn’t provide “the same type of transparency and forewarning when they chose to launch ballistic missiles.”

Last week, North Korea launched four missiles into the seas off Japan, in an apparent reaction to major annual military drills the U.S. is currently conducting with South Korea. North Korea claims the test launches were rehearsals for an invasion.

Tillerson told reporters the U.S. doesn’t want things to escalate to point of military action “but obviously if North Korea takes actions that threatens the South Korean forces or our own forces then that will be met with an appropriate response.”

“If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe requires action, that option is on the table,” Tillerson said.

–with a file from the Associated Press.