United States President Donald Trump has vowed to annihilate North Korea if Washington or its allies are threatened. Trump made the statement in his first appearance at the United Nations (UN).
Trump -- in a blunt warning to Pyongyang -- told the world leaders gathered for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that ''the United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."
Calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un a 'Rocket man', the US President said: ''Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself."
After North's latest missile launch, the US has suggested that its patience for diplomacy with Pyongyang is running out. With North Korea's growing nuclear programme, unbridled missile tests, and the Unites States' threats of military action, a highly plausible prospect of a nuclear war looms over the world.
Trump is scheduled to have a trilateral meeting on Wednesday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the South Korean President Moon Jae-In to discuss how to reach a solution to the mounting crisis posed by North Korea's missile tests, and its recent thermonuclear Hydrogen bomb test. Japan and South Korea are easy targets for North Korea and the nations are feeling increasingly threatened.
Trump, in his UN speech, also said that ''if the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph,'' while adding that North Korea "imperils the world" and it is not in any country's interest that the North continues in its path of nuclear and ballistic missile development.
The US President also slammed Iraq for its nuclear ambitions and called the UN-backed nuclear deal "one of the worst and most one-sided" agreements ever, and ''an embarrassment'' to the US.
Trump praised the UN member countries for acting together to impose heavy sanctions on North Korea to curb its nuclear programme. However, he also criticised China by saying, "It is an outrage that some nations would not only trade with such a nation but would arm, supply, and financially support a country that imperils the world."
China is considered North Korea's only support system in terms of trade, as Pyongyang has been left isolated by the whole world. Beijing, however, has also heeded to the UN sanctions as its prominent banks have reportedly halted all financial transactions to North Koreans.
"Major portions of the world are in conflict and some, in fact, are going to hell," Trump said. "The powerful people in this room, under the guidance and auspices of the United Nations, can solve many of these vicious and complex problems," Trump said in his widely-awaited UN address.
