Amid North Korea’s hints that its “Christmas gift” to the U.S. will be a missile test, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the dictatorship’s present may instead turn out to be something nice, like a “beautiful vase.”
Trump made the comment to reporters after holding a Christmas Eve video conference with U.S. troops from his Florida resort, where he is spending the holidays.
“Maybe it’s a present where he sends me a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test. Right? I may get a vase, I may get a nice present from him, you don’t know. You never know,” Trump said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Associated Press reported earlier in the day that satellite images of North Korea show the construction of a new structure at a factory where the country makes military equipment for launching long-range missiles.
North Korea first made a vague “Christmas gift” threat earlier this month ahead of Kim’s year-end deadline for the U.S. to offer agreeable terms for negotiations around North Korea’s nuclear weapon arsenal.
“What is left to be done now is the U.S. option and it is entirely up to the U.S. what Christmas gift it will select to get,” senior diplomat Ri Thae Song said in a statement that military experts interpreted as a threat to test a long-range ballistic missile.