Trump didn’t explain how the U.S. has supposedly paid extortion funds to North Korea, but the U.S. has provided international aid assistance to the country in the past. | Evan Vucci/AP Trump on North Korea: 'Talking is not the answer'

President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed frustration that diplomatic efforts with North Korea are not yielding results, tweeting that "talking is not the answer!" after the reclusive country launched its latest missile test earlier this week.

“The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years,” he wrote. “Talking is not the answer!”


Trump didn’t explain how the U.S. has supposedly paid extortion funds to North Korea, but the U.S. has provided international aid assistance to the country in the past.

Despite Trump’s strong words on Wednesday, the president’s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and defense secretary, James Mattis, have stressed that the best way to de-escalate the tension and push North Korea to denuclearize is through diplomacy and economic pressure.

On Wednesday, Mattis said that the U.S. has not run out of diplomatic solutions, when asked by a reporter about Trump's latest tweet.

"We're never out of diplomatic solutions. We continue to work together and [South Korean Minister of Defense Song Young-moo] and I share responsibility to provide for the protection of our nation, our populations ,and our interests," Mattis said, according to a pool report. "Which is what we are here to discuss today. And look for all the areas we can collaborate — there is already very strong collaboration, we always look for more, we are never complacent."

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The president's tweet follows a White House statement issued Tuesday in which the president said “all options are on the table” in dealing with North Korea.

The rhetoric between the U.S. and North Korea intensified this week after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan, a move seen as extremely provocative. The U.N. Security Council denounced the missile launch on Tuesday as “outrageous.”

Far from backing down, however, North Korean state media issued a warning Wednesday that the missile fired over Japan was “the first step of the military operation … in the Pacific and a meaningful prelude to containing Guam,” according to CNN.

