Trump: ‘We will handle’ North Korea missile launch
President Trump on Tuesday expressed confidence following North Korea’s latest missile launch, saying “it’s a situation we will handle.”
“We will take care of it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “It is a situation that we will handle.”
The president said he would not alter his stance on North Korea in response to the launch.
“Nothing changed. Nothing changed,” Trump said, adding he is keeping “a very serious approach.”
Trump’s comments came after U.S. military officials confirmed that North Korea had launched a ballistic missile, its first such launch since September.
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Defense Secretary James Mattis said that the intercontinental ballistic missile went “higher, frankly, than any previous shots” North Korea has taken.
Mattis said that North Korea’s continued effort to develop weapons “endangers world peace, regional peace and certainly the United States.”
The missile was fired at dawn local time on Wednesday from an area north of Pyongyang and flew eastward before falling into the Sea of Japan.
The Pentagon said the missile posed no threat to North America or any U.S. territories or allies and that the U.S. remains “prepared to defend ourselves and our allies from any attack or provocation.”
The launch directly defies Trump’s repeated demands that the country curb its burgeoning nuclear program.
Updated: 4:11 p.m.