Trump warns: ‘I would not be happy’ if North Korea attempts another nuke test

“I would not be happy if he [North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un] does a nuclear test,” Trump said during an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The president wouldn’t say whether or not that would necessarily mean military action, saying, “I don’t know, I mean, we will see.”

Last Friday, the communist regime conducted yet another missile test. The U.S. military said the missile disintegrated over land.

Trump reiterated that allowing the status quo to continue was unlikely, while laying some not-so subtle blame at the feet of his predecessors.

“But, we have a situation that we just cannot let — we cannot let what has been going on for a long period of years continue. And frankly, this should have been done and taken care of by the Obama administration, should have been taken care of by the Bush administration. Should have been taken care of by Clinton,” Trump said.

Emerging as an issue for Trump, however, is how much the administration is willing to create trade-offs on human rights issues or trade issues with countries like China and the Philippines in exchange for those countries putting pressure on North Korea.

Host John Dickerson asked, “You are a negotiator, if you need something from somebody, you need China to help you with North Korea, doesn’t that send a message to China, we are not going to bug you about human rights, about intellectual property, in a South China Sea we won’t put too much heat on you, aren’t you breaking one of your own negotiating rules?”

“No. Frankly, I think maybe North Korea is more important than trade,” the president responded. “Trade is very important, but massive warfare with millions potentially, millions of people being killed? That as we would say trumps trade.”

Trump went on to insist that the administration is continuing to build consensus with China on how to deal with the North Korean threat.

“You can never be sure of anything, can you?” the president said. “But I developed a very good relationship. I don’t think they want to see a destabilized North Korea, I don’t think they want to see it. They certainly don’t want to see nuclear on — from their neighbor. They haven’t liked it for a long time, but we’ll have to see what happens.”

Trump added that Kim shouldn’t be underestimated.

“I can tell you this, a lot of people don’t like when I say it, but he was a young man of 26 or 27 when he took over from his father, when his father died,” Trump said. “He is dealing with obviously very tough people, in particular the generals and others. And at a very young age he was able to assume power. A lot of people I am sure tried to take that power away. Whether it was his uncle or anybody else and he was able to do it, so obviously he is a pretty smart cookie.”