Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea from the United Nations podium
Reporting and findings
- documented
Trump told the United Nations that if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies, it would have no choice but to “totally destroy” North Korea.
Corrects claim:north-korea-total-destruction-threat
Summary and current status
Trump issued the conditional ‘totally destroy’ threat on September 19, 2017
People and organizations
- Donald J. Trumppresident making the threat
- Democratic People's Republic of Koreastate targeted by the threat
Relationships in this file
- Donald J. Trumpconditionally threatened North Korea with total destructionDemocratic People's Republic of Korea
Figures
Explicit conditional threat of force1 statement Calculation details
- Basis
- Observed
- Population
- Trump's September 19, 2017 United Nations speech targeting North Korea
- Period
- 2017-09-19 to 2017-09-19
- As of
- 2017-09-19
- Method
- Count the dated threat once, retaining the stated condition of defending the United States or its allies. Separate from the August 8 statement; do not count the superseded predecessor entry.
- Uncertainty
- The conditional statement does not establish an operation or an adjudicated legal violation. This is not a census of every threat.