Twice on Friday, U.S. president Donald Trump offered warnings for North Korea, as tensions continue to mount between the two countries
When speaking at his golf estate in Bedminster, N.J., Trump warned that the country will “truly regret it” if it overtly threatens the U.S. again.
“This man won’t get away with what he is doing,” he said. “And if he utters one threat, in the form of an overt threat … or if he does one thing in respect to Guam or any place else that’s an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast.”
WATCH: Jackson Proskow reports on the push for a diplomatic solution to avoid all out war.
North Korea, led by Kim Jong-Un, has said via state media that it is developing a plan to fire missiles into the water around Guam, a U.S. territory.
He added that he hoped Kim fully understood Trump’s words.
“I hope that they are going to fully understand the gravity of what I said, and what I said is what I mean,” Trump said Friday.
Later Friday, after meeting with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, he said he would be speaking to Chinese President Xi Jinping that night about the “very dangerous” situation.
“Hopefully, it will all work out,” Trump told reporters at the time. “Nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump that I can tell you.”
He also said that North Korea would be in “big, big trouble” if anything happened to Guam.
The rhetoric remains consistent with Trump’s comments throughout the past week. On Tuesday, he said North Korea will be met with “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” and then Friday morning, he tweeted that the military solutions are “locked and loaded.”
On Tuesday, Trump’s initial comments were made after reports that North Korea had successfully miniaturized warheads to fit on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).
Citing new analysis, completed last month by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the Washington Post reported North Korea also has up to 60 nuclear warheads.
WATCH: Full coverage of escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea on Globalnews.ca
Trump also said that his critics only complained about his tough rhetoric on North Korea “because it’s me.”
He says days of grave threats to the communist country’s leader would be welcomed as “a great statement” if “somebody else” uttered them.
“If somebody else uttered the same words they’d say ‘what a great statement, what a wonderful statement,’” he said.
Trump adds that millions of Americans support his words because “finally we have a president that’s sticking up for our nation and frankly sticking up for our friends and our allies.”
*with a file from the Associated Press