Haley: ‘North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed’ if war breaks out

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley on Wednesday rebuked North Korea’s latest missile test, echoing President Trump’s past threats that the isolated Asian country will be “destroyed” in the event of war with the U.S.

In an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, Haley called on the panel’s member states to amp up sanctions on North Korea and fully implement penalties established by the council earlier this year. 

But she also delivered a firm warning that North Korea’s latest missile test brings Washington and Pyongyang “closer to war,” and that if a conflict were to break out between the U.S. and North Korea, the isolated country would face certain devastation. 

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“If war comes, make no mistake, the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed,” Haley said.

Haley’s comments came after North Korea conducted its latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test on Tuesday, its first in more than two months. The rocket flew further than any of its predecessors, with the U.S. mainland falling into its range.

Trump said on Wednesday that he would implement “additional major sanctions” against North Korea in response to the test, vowing that “the situation will be handled.”

Haley’s remarks at the Security Council meeting on Wednesday echoed the past rhetoric of both her and President Trump. In September, after North Korea said it had tested a miniaturized hydrogen bomb, Haley said Kim Jong Un’s regime was “begging for war.”

In August, Trump said he would unleash “fire and fury” on the country if it continued to threaten the U.S. and its allies. Later, in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September, he threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea in the event of a military confrontation.