[AP/Yonhap News Photo ]
US President Donald Trump said he will deal with North Korea "very strongly," calling the communist regime a "big, big problem" after Pyongyang carried out the latest ballistic missile launch.
"Obviously North Korea is a big, big problem and we will deal with that very strongly," Trump said during a joint news conference at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in response to a question about the most important national security matters facing him.
Trump did not elaborate on specific strategies to deal with Pyongyang. Still, the remark shows Trump seriously takes the North's growing nuclear and missile threats.
After summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, Trump said that defending against the North's nuclear and missile threat is "a very very high priority" for him.
Trump also held a late night joint press conference with Abe on Saturday, just hours after the North's missile launch, to reaffirm the US commitment to defending the ally in the face of North Korean threats, though he stopped short of directly condemning the launch.
(Yonhap)
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
