U.S. President Donald Trump warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Twitter on Tuesday that he’s always prepared for the nuclear option.
“North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,’” he wrote on Twitter.
“Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
To be clear, Trump doesn’t have a nuclear button. The Associated Press reports that a nuclear “football” is carried by a rotating group of military officers everywhere the president goes.
The tweet appears to be a response to Kim’s New Year’s Day speech, which was televised one day earlier.
“The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, and a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality, not a threat,” Kim said on Monday.
“This year, we should focus on mass producing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles for operational deployment. These weapons will be used only if our security is threatened.”
WATCH: Kim Jong-Un warns that entire U.S. within range of North Korea’s nuclear weapons
In the New Year’s Day speech, Kim also mentioned sending a delegation to the Olympics. Earlier Tuesday South Korea offered to open talks between the two countries to discuss Olympic participation.
The president also tweeted as reports state that the Asian country is preparing for another missile test.
An anonymous North Korean defector told Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun that Kim ordered scientists to build another missile, and other reports say there would be a missile test in the coming days.
But Nikki Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations said talks would be useless unless the North abandons its nuclear weapons program.
“We hear reports that North Korea might be preparing for another missile test,” Haley said. “I hope that doesn’t happen. But if it does, we must bring even tougher measures to bear against the North Korean regime.”
“North Korea can talk to anyone they want, but the U.S. is not going to recognize it or acknowledge it until they agree to ban the nuclear weapons that they have,” she said.
WATCH: U.S. won’t talk with North Korea until they ban nuclear weapons
When asked about a report that North Korea was preparing for another missile test, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday that the U.S. would continue to apply “maximum pressure.”
“The focus here is to continue … to apply maximum pressure on North Korea and we want all of the other countries, this is not just a United States threat, this is a global threat, which is why we’re calling on everybody to do more.”
WATCH: U.S to apply ‘Maximum pressure’ as North Korea prepares for renewed missile tests
Earlier in the day, Trump appeared open to talks with North Korea, tweeting that “perhaps that is good news, perhaps not – we will see!”
If there are talks, they would be the first formal dialogue between the Koreas since December 2015.
*with files from the Associated Press
Comments