Trump and his administration are ‘speaking with one voice’ on North Korea, State Department says

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North Korean threats draw attention to US nuclear arsenal

Kevin Corke has the details

The State Department on Wednesday insisted President Trump and his Cabinet secretaries are in agreement about how to deal with North Korea a day after the president warned it could face “fire” and “fury” from the United States.

“The United States is on the same page,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said during Wednesday’s briefing with reporters. “Whether it’s the White House, the State Department, the Department of Defense, we are speaking with one voice. And the world is in fact speaking with one voice.”

Tensions have escalated with North Korea over the last several days. On Tuesday, President Trump reacted to reports that North Korea had produced a compact nuclear warhead by warning the country that it would face consequences if it threatened the United States.

“They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump told reporters at his golf course in New Jersey.

Hours after Trump’s comments, state media in North Korea reported that its leaders were seriously considering a plan to fire missiles at Guam.

Nauert denied that Trump’s colorful language and warning of war were at odds with other secretaries and officials. She referenced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s comments that Trump was sending a message to North Korea in the type of language it could understand.

“The secretary has talked in the past about how the president is a very effective spokesman,” Nauert said. “People listen to him.”

Nauert said the administration is unified over the “pressure campaign that’s backed by many other nations” to deal with North Korea diplomatically.

“Those are alarming actions,” Nauert said of Kim Jong-Un's regime. “They’re provocative actions on the part of North Korea.”

Speaking of Trump’s comments, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that chief of staff John Kelly and members of the National Security Council were “aware of the tone of the statement of the president prior to delivery.”

“The words were his own,” she said. “The tone and strength of the message were discussed beforehand.”

Earlier Wednesday, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued a warning to North Korea in a fiery statement of his own.

“The DPRK regime's actions will continue to be grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates,” the defense secretary said.

Earlier in the day, Trump said on Twitter that the United States’ nuclear arsenal is “stronger than ever before.”

TRUMP SAYS US NUKES MORE POWERFUL THAN EVER

“My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.