U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Sunday if "diplomatic means" fail to reign in North Korea’s nuclear missile program, Defense Secretary James "Mattis will take care of it."
In an interview with CNN’s "State of the Union," Haley said President Donald Trump’s previous threat of "fire and fury" against Pyongyang wasn’t an "empty threat."
"We have pretty much exhausted everything," she said. "I said yesterday I was perfectly happy to send this over to Secretary Mattis. He had plenty of military options, the ‘fire and fury.’ We wanted to be responsible and go through all diplomatic means to get their attention first. If that doesn't work, General Mattis will take care of it."
"If the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in anyway, North Korea will be destroyed," she added.
Haley also defended an "emotional" President Donald Trump’s tweet in the wake of the bucket-bomb terror attack on the London subway, which Prime Minister Theresa May criticized as unhelpful to the investigation.
"The president wouldn't want to do any harm to the investigation," Haley said. "if he goes out and gets emotional and passionate about the fact that he's upset what happened in the U.K., of course, that's what he put out there," she said.
"But there was no ill intent with that. I think it was the fact that he was very concerned and very disturbed these terrorist attacks keep happening in Great Britain."
Asked if she’d ever reconsider the possibility of becoming the nation’s secretary of state Haley dismissed the idea.
"Well, I'm not going to be asked, because Rex Tillerson is not going anywhere," she said.
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