German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday said that she completely disagreed with United States President Donald Trump over his threat to destroy North Korea. Trump had threatened to annihilate Pyongyang if the US or its allies felt endangered, in his first United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) address.
"I am against such threats," Merkel said in an interview with the radio station Deutsche Welle, adding that she was in "clear disagreement" with Trump.
"We believe that any kind of military solution is completely deficient and we support diplomatic efforts," Merkel said. "With regards to North Korea, I consider any other option to be without foundation. And this is why there is a clear disagreement on this point with the American president," she added, according to AFP.
The German Chancellor also gave a notice stating that Berlin would not sit and watch passively, as the North Korean crisis unfolds.
The issue "also concerns us," she said. "And this is why I am ready — and the foreign minister (Social Democrat Sigmar Gabriel) is ready — to assume my responsibilities."
Trump -- in a blunt warning to Pyongyang on Tuesday -- told the world leaders gathered for the UNGA session that ''the United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."
Calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un a 'Rocket man', the US President said: ''Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself."
After North's latest missile launch and the sixth nuclear test, the US has suggested that its patience for diplomacy with Pyongyang is running out. With North Korea's growing nuclear programme, unbridled missile tests, and the US' threats of military action, a highly plausible prospect of a nuclear war looms over the world.
If the US is "forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea," Trump said in his speech.
The German Chancellor, however, has called for a diplomatic situation to put a halt to North Korea's burgeoning nuclear programme, with the 2015 Iran deal as a possible template.
Trump had also slammed the UN-backed Iran nuclear deal at the UNGA by calling it "one of the worst and most one-sided" agreements ever and had deemed it as ''an embarrassment'' to the US.
