North Korea’s foreign minister said in an interview with a Russian state-run news outlet published Wednesday that President Trump has “lit the wick of war” with his aggressive rhetoric in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month.
“With his bellicose and insane statement at the United Nations, Trump, you can say, has lit the wick of a war against us,” Ri Yong Ho was quoted as telling Russia’s TASS news agency, according to Reuters. “We need to settle the final score, only with a hail of fire, not words.”
Trump said in his speech at the General Assembly that the U.S. would “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatened the U.S. or its allies. The president also called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man,” referring to the country’s continued missile tests.
{mosads}Kim and Trump have traded verbals shots in recent months as North Korea continues to pursue its goal of attaining a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to U.S. soil.
North Korea launched two ballistic missiles over neighboring Japan, a U.S. ally, in August and September in defiance of U.N. sanctions aimed at starving Pyongyang’s economic resources.
“Our principal position is that we will never agree to any talks in which our nuclear weapons will be the subject of negotiations,” North Korea’s foreign minister told TASS, according to Reuters.
Trump on Tuesday discussed a “range of options” with his national security team on action against North Korea, the White House said.
The president has repeatedly alluded to the use of force as an option in containing the North Korean threat.
Trump tweeted last week saying that “only one thing will work” against North Korea, voicing his frustration with failed negotiations under previous administrations.