President Trump delivered a hard-hitting speech at the United Nations on Tuesday, threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea if it does not abandon its nuclear-weapons program — prompting gasps from the audience.
Again mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “Rocket Man,” Trump warned that the despot is risking doomsday for his nation’s 25 million people.
“Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime. If [the US] is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” the president said in his first address to the General Assembly.
Gasps could be heard from delegates when Trump uttered those words.
He went on to say that “it is far past time for the nations of the world to confront” Kim, arguing that Kim’s “reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons” poses a threat to “the entire world with an unthinkable loss of human life.”
Trump, who has previously warned of “fire and fury” if Pyongyang did not back down, claimed that “no one has shown more contempt for other nations and for the well-being of their own people than the depraved regime in North Korea.”
Pyongyang later said it “boycotted” Trump’s speech, with senior officials walking out and leaving behind only a junior diplomat.
The president went on to scold nations he said have enabled and traded with North Korea, a shot at China, although he did not mention that country by name.
In a combative, 41-minute address, Trump also took aim at “loser” terrorists, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Venezuela’s collapsing democracy and the threat of Islamist extremists.
“Major portions of the world are in conflict and some, in fact, are going to hell,” the president said in a speech that he carefully read from teleprompters.
In other highlights:
- Trump called the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama an embarrassment and hinted that he may not recertify the agreement when it comes up for a mid-October deadline. “I don’t think you’ve heard the end of it, believe me,” he said, calling Iran an “economically depleted rogue state” that exports violence and threatens to destroy Israel.
- He said the collapsing situation in Venezuela was “completely unacceptable” and that the US “cannot stand by and watch.” He warned that the US was considering what further actions it can take against the regime of Nicolas Maduro, after having commented earlier this summer that military options were not off the table. “Maduro has inflicted terrible pain and suffering on good people of his country,” Trump said on Tuesday.
- The president chastised Cuba. “The United States has stood against the corrupt and destabilizing regime in Cuba and embraced the enduring dream of the Cuban people to live in freedom,” he said, noting that sanctions would not be lifted without political reforms.
- He touted his nationalist policies. “I will always put America first. Just like you, the leaders of your countries, should and always put your countries first,” said Trump, who assured the UN that the US would not abdicate its leadership position in the world but wanted other countries to contribute more to their own security and to the UN as well.
- And he dismissed the concept of nation-building or creating democracies through the use of military force. “We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions or same systems of government,” Trump said, adding that he expects all nations to “respect the interest of their own people and the rights of every other sovereign nation.
Venezuela’s minister of foreign affairs, Jorge Arreaza, slammed Trump for talking about destroying countries.
“This is supposed to be the house and the headquarters for peace in international law, and what we heard was the opposite of that. It’s a president who comes for the first time and speaks about war, about destroying countries, about blockades against countries,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron hit Trump for not addressing climate change in his speech, defending the Paris climate accord — which Trump has abandoned — and calling the Iran nuclear deal “essential for peace.”
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu applauded Trump’s remarks.
“In over 30 years in my experience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech,” he wrote on Twitter.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned his country could ramp up its nuclear program if the US backs out of the nuke deal.
“The exiting of the United States from such an agreement would carry a high cost, meaning that subsequent to such an action by the United States of America, no one will trust America again,” Rouhani told NBC.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg praised Trump’s hawkish tone on North Korea.
“I welcome the unity in the international community of the importance of making sure that North Korea abandon its nuclear and missile programs and that North Korea refrain from testing more missiles and weapons,” he said.
With Wires