President Donald Trump took a hard stance Tuesday afternoon regarding North Korea and the rogue nation's latest test of its military ballistic missile program.
"We will take care of that situation," Trump told White House pool reporters in the Roosevelt Room during some hastily scheduled face time with members of the media.
North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Tuesday afternoon Washington time. The missile flew 2,800 miles into space and splashed down roughly 200 miles off the coast of Japan about 50 minutes after it was launched.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis was also in the Roosevelt Room and confirmed the existence of the missile launch.
"It went higher, frankly, than any previous [missile launch]," Mattis said.
Mattis noted that Tuesday's test demonstrated that North Korea has the ability to "threaten everywhere in the world, basically. … If they continue the effort to build a ballistic missile threat, that endangers world peace and certainly the United States."
Fox News cited missile experts who concluded that if the missile had taken a more typical trajectory, it could have hit any major U.S. city — including those on the east coast.
Trump also spoke about the need to fully fund the military, which jives with Tuesday's developments on the Korean peninsula.
"We want our military funded and we want it funded now," Trump said.
The U.S. has amassed a flotilla of ships off the Korean peninsula in a show of force against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his regime.
South Korea responded to Tuesday's launch within minutes by launching its own test strike after the North Korean ICBM began climbing.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.