Senior Trump Adviser Explains Why The President Threatened North Korea

But, in this instance, according to these reports, Trump was freelancing on what many experts believe to be the most thorny and risky issue he faces: North Korea's nukes.

The plan will then go to the commander in chief of North Korea's nuclear force and "wait for his order", Kim was quoted by KCNA as saying.

Tensions between the United States and North Korea have escalated in recent months after Pyongyang conducted a series of missile launches and nuclear tests in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

On Tuesday, Trump said, "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States", after North Korea warned it will teach the USA a "severe lesson" with its nuclear weapons if Washington would dare to opt for military action against Pyongyang.

The Weekly Standard reported Wednesday that the White House, including the president's national security team, did not help Trump prepare his remarks on North Korea, which were delivered ahead of a meeting on the opioid crisis in the US and prompted by new reports that North Korea has escalated its nuclear program. While the prospect of military action by either side appears slim, given the level of devastation that would ensue, Trump's talk Tuesday of "fire and fury like the world has never seen" compounded fears of an accident or misunderstanding leading the nuclear-armed nations into conflict.

"We need to be firm and deliberate with North Korea, but reckless rhetoric is not a strategy to keep America safe", Mr Schumer said in a statement.

A day after evoking the use of overwhelming US military might, Trump touted America's atomic supremacy.

"Donald Trump should be relieved of the powers of the presidency at the earliest date".

Schaefer says it's important for recently tightened U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea to be implemented. In talking about how the President had ordered him to insure the readiness of the USA nuclear forces, the Defense Secretary seemed to be backing up a tweet that Trump sent out on Wednesday morning, in which he said, "My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal".

The Secretary of State's intention seemed plain: to defend his volatile boss and suggest that there was method behind his apparent madness, but also to convey to the American public, and to the country's allies, that nothing fundamental had changed about USA policy toward North Korea.

North Korea wants to protect itself and ultimately reunify the Korean Peninsula, an unimaginable fate for South Korea, our strong ally.

He downplayed speculation that the threats move the US closer to a military option.

Trump's provocative remarks triggered reactions from other lawmakers too, who all said they were opposed to such a move.

"President Trump has basically drawn a red line".