Mattis Warns North Korea Of 'Massive' Military Response

The United States is prepared to take "massive" military action against North Korea, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said at the White House Sunday. His statement followed a West Wing meeting with President Trump and others.

Mattis said that while the United States is not looking for the "annihilation" of North Korea, he made it clear that any major threat would be met with a response that would be "overwhelming."

"We have many military options," Mattis told reporters. "The president wanted to be briefed on each one of them.

“We made clear that we have the ability to defend ourselves and our allies, South Korea and Japan, from any attack. And our commitment among the allies is ironclad."

Mattis was joined by General Joseph Dunford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Neither of the two men took questions.

The White House meeting followed an early morning series of tweets on Sunday morning where President Trump denounced North Korea's claims of yet another nuclear bomb test. The president also had critical words for China and South Korea.

"North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear test," Trump tweeted. "Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States.

"North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat."

The president also said that North Korea has "become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success."

He added that South Korean "talk of appeasement" will not work because North Korea "only understand one thing!"

Several experts took issue with Trump's characterization of South Korea's approach.

"I'm sure the government of South Korea would say their policy re North Korea could not accurately be described as 'appeasement,'" tweeted Stephen McDonell, the China Correspondent for the BBC.

After the president's tweets, the White House released a more formal statement saying that "the National security team is monitoring this closely. The President and his national security team will have a meeting to discuss further later today. We will provide updates as necessary."

The nuclear test, which was North Korea's sixth and most powerful yet, was first publicly detected as a 6.3 earthquake - a tremor whose effects were documented by the United States Geological Survey.

Tensions between the United States and North Korea have been escalating in recent weeks with the North Korea threatening to attack Guam and President Trump promising to unleash "fire and fury" on the North.

Graphic via USGS Latest Earthquakes