U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed any diplomatic approach to dealing with North Korea stating on Twitter that “only one thing will work” in a thinly veiled threat against Kim Jong Un.
“Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid…” the president tweeted.
“…hasn’t worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!” he continued in a second tweet.
Trump’s comments on Saturday came shortly after he made cryptic comments during a photo-op with several U.S. military leaders, where he declared the moment “the calm before the storm.”
“You guys know what this represents?” Trump told reporters Thursday gathered at the White House to photograph him and first lady Melania Trump with military leaders and their spouses.
“Maybe it’s the calm before the storm,” he said.
WATCH: Donald Trump talks of ‘calm before the storm’ during photo-op with U.S. military leaders
Reporters repeatedly asked the president to clarify whether he was referencing North Korea, Iran or another country, but Trump refused to further elaborate.
Trump’s new tweets hinting at the possibility of military action come as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last week that the U.S. had set up multiple direct channels of communication with Pyongyang.
“We are probing, so stay tuned,” Tillerson told a small group of reporters last week in China. “We ask: Would you like to talk? We have lines of communications to Pyongyang. We’re not in a dark situation.”
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Trump and Tillerson have been at odds over the handling of the Hermit Kingdom, which has raised tensions on the Korean peninsula with its repeated rocket tests.
Trump later said in a series of tweets on Oct. 1, that Tillerson was “wasting his time” negotiating with “Little Rocket Man.”
The secretary of state also gave a press conference this week where he downplayed reports he had threatened to quit as recently as this summer but refused to say whether he called Trump a “moron.”
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