President Trump says any miliitary action the US takes against North Korea will be "devastating".
But he said a military strike is not his "preferred option" for dealing with the crisis in the Peninsula.
Our US Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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Flanked by the Spanish Prime Minister, President Trump shied away from the more heated language he's used recently about North Korea.
There was no reference to fire and fury…..the phrase locked and loaded didn't drop from his lips….though he did keep the threat of a military strike on the table.
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But he said that's not his preferred option…echoing other senior figures in his administration who claim the diplomatic track isn't dead.
Principle among them, General James Mattis the so-called mad dog who heads the Defence Department.
On a visit to India he insisted efforts continue at the United Nations to defuse the Korean tinderbox.
President Trump - who recently said it's time to stop talking and start acting on North Korea - said the issue should have been resolved long ago.
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America's military options in North Korea remain opaque.
So do Kim Jong Un's intentions.,
His foreign minister says US fighter jets in the region could now be shot out of the sky by North Korea's forces…even when US pilots are not in North Korean air space.
That would represent a dramatic escalation of the conflict…moving it away from a war of words and towards a very real military clash.
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