President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned North Korea against making any further threats to the United States, threatening that they will be "met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."
"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," Trump told reporters just before a briefing on the opioid crisis at his resort in Bedminster, N.J. "They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.
"He has been very threatening beyond a normal statement," the president said, referring to dictator Kim Jong-un's promise Monday to "make the U.S. pay dearly" for the latest round of United Nations sanctions approved Saturday.
"And, as I said, they will be met with fire, fury, and, frankly, power — the likes of which the world has never seen before."
Kim's regime said Monday that the United States would "make the U.S. pay dearly for all the heinous crime it commits against the state and people of this country" after Saturday's 15-0 sanctions vote.
"We will, under no circumstances, put the nukes and ballistic rockets on negotiating table," the Korean Central News Agency reported.
"Neither shall we flinch even an inch from the road to bolstering up the nuclear forces chosen by ourselves, unless the hostile policy and nuclear threat of the U.S. against the DPRK are fundamentally eliminated."
In addition, The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that Pyongyang has small nuclear warheads that can fit inside its intercontinental ballistic missiles.
With the confidential assessment, North Korea crossed a key threshold toward becoming a full-fledged nuclear power, the Post reports.
"The IC [intelligence community] assesses North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM-class missiles," the DIA report says.
North Korea may have as many as 60 nuclear weapons in its arsenal, the Post reports, though some analysts disagree on that number.
The U.N. Security Council on Saturday slapped Pyongyang with tough new sanctions aimed at cutting its export revenue by as much as $1 billion a year.
The resolution was drafted by the United States and was backed by China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.
The sanctions banned all exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as fish and seafood by the cash-starved state — stripping North Korea of a third of its export earnings estimated at $3 billion per year.
Earlier Tuesday, President Trump called for "tough and decisive" action against North Korea on Twitter:
Earlier on Tuesday, Japan's Defense Ministry said "It is conceivable that North Korea's nuclear weapons program has already considerably advanced and it is possible that North Korea has already achieved the miniaturisation of nuclear weapons and has acquired nuclear warheads."
North Korea has made no secret of its plans to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States and has ignored international calls to halt its nuclear and missile programmes.
North Korea says its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are a legitimate means of defense against perceived U.S. hostility. It has long accused the United States and South Korea of escalating tensions by conducting military drills.
U.S. stocks fell, with the S&P 500 at a session low after Trump’s comment, while a widely followed measure of stock market anxiety spiked higher and was on track to close at a one-month high. The U.S. dollar index slightly pared gains as the safe-haven yen strengthened against the U.S. currency.
Reuters contributed to this report.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.