President Donald Trump on Friday warned North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that he "will truly regret it" if he continues to threaten the U.S. and its allies.
"If he utters one threat…an overt threat…or if he does anything with respect to Guam or anyplace else that's an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it. And he will regret it fast," Trump told reporters at his golf club in New Jersey.
"Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely," he said on Twitter earlier in the day before retweeting Pentagon photos of B1 bombers that are said to be key to U.S. plans to strike the North.
In response to a question about his tweet, Trump said it was "pretty obvious."
"We are looking at that very carefully. And I hope that they are going to fully understand the gravity of what I said, and what I said is what I mean," he said.
"So hopefully they'll understand exactly what I said and the meaning of those words. Those words are very, very easy to understand. Hopefully Kim Jong-un will find another path!"
Trump's comments are the latest in an effort to pressure North Korea to end its ballistic missile and nuclear tests.
On Thursday, Trump threatened that should Kim's government strike the U.S. or its allies, "things will happen to them like they never thought possible".
Unfazed, the North's state-run KCNA news agency cited officials claiming America's regional military strategy and sanctions risk inviting "a shameful defeat and final doom.
But even as the rhetoric between the countries continues to escalate, the U.S. and North Korea have been engaged in a months-long closed-door dialogue, the Associated Press reported.
It said diplomatic contacts are regularly occurring between Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, and Pak Song Il, a senior North Korean diplomat at the country's U.N. mission, citing officials and others briefed on the process.
But these interactions have done nothing so far to end tensions over the North's nuclear weapons and missile programs, the report added, citing people familiar with the contacts.
