House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi criticized President Trump for threatening North Korea with "fire and fury," calling the president's statements "recklessly belligerent" and "impulsive."
"The president's most recent comments are recklessly belligerent and demonstrate a grave lack of appreciation for the severity of the North Korean nuclear situation," Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wednesday. "His saber-rattling and provocative, impulsive rhetoric erode our credibility and weaken our ability to reach a peaceful resolution to this crisis, and must immediately end."
On Tuesday, Trump warned North Korea not to make any additional threats against the U.S. after Pyongyang threatened to test another missile in response to new sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council and heightened its rhetoric against the U.S.
"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," Trump told reporters during an event Tuesday at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. "They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen."
But the president's comments have been criticized by Democrats like Pelosi, who urged the White House to "be strong and smart, not reckless and rash," and said the American people "deserve real leadership."
"It is long past time for the White House to get serious about the North Korean threat and produce a clear-headed, consistent and calculated strategy: rhetoric about ‘fire and fury' demonstrates weakness, not strength of purpose," Pelosi said.
North Korea escalated its criticisms of the U.S. following the unanimous U.N. Security Council vote Saturday and said "packs of wolves are coming in attack to strangle a nation," according to a statement issued Tuesday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
"They should be mindful that the [Democratic People's Republican of Korea's] strategic steps accompanied by physical action will be taken mercilessly with the mobilization of all its national strength," the statement read.
