U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat against North Korea Friday morning saying the country’s military is ‘locked and loaded.’
Trump warned on Twitter that “military solutions are now fully in place.”
“Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!” the president tweeted.
Trump’s threat comes just a day after the president ramped up his rhetoric by saying his warning for “fire and fury” against North Korea “may not be tough enough.”
READ MORE: Trump says sanctions won’t affect North Korea, despite praising China, Russia for support
“Frankly, the people who were questioning that statement, was it too tough? Maybe it wasn’t tough enough,” Trump said Thursday.
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“It’s about time someone stood up for the people of our country,” he added.
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He also said the U.S. military backed his comments 100 per cent.
On Tuesday, Trump’s initial comments were made after reports that North Korea had successfully miniaturized warheads to fit on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump told reporters at the time.
North Korea is said to have completed the manufacturing of a nuclear warhead that’s small enough to fit inside its missiles, pushing the secretive state closer to a nuclear power, according to both NBC News and the Washington Post.
READ MORE: U.S.-South Korea military exercises to move forward despite threat of missile launches by North
Citing new analysis, competed last month by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the Washington Post reported North Korea also has up to 60 nuclear warheads.
Pyongyang warned Thursday North Korea is finalizing a plan to launch four Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan and into waters around the tiny island of Guam, which hosts 7,000 U.S. military personnel on two main bases and has a population of 160,000.
WATCH: U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Chris Occhiuzzo says bombers stationed in Guam are on high alert.
North Korea’s threats ramped after the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted 15-0 to impose new sanctions on the secretive state. The U.S.-drafted resolution could effectively slash nearly $1 billion of the country’s export revenue.
“We will make the U.S. pay by a thousand-fold for all the heinous crimes it commits against the state and people of this country,” North Korea said through its state media on Sunday.
Both U.S. and South Korean officials said they would move forward with large-scale military exercises later this month, an annual event. The exercises, which were scheduled before tensions began to rise, are expected to run from Aug. 21-31 and involve tens of thousands of American and South Korean troops on the ground and in the sea and air.
Washington and Seoul say the exercises are defensive in nature and crucial to maintaining a deterrent against North Korean aggression.
-with a file from the Associated Press
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