North Korea crisis tops Trump’s agenda at U.N. meeting

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Sunday that the Security Council had “exhausted” all options to curtail North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and warned that the problem could be now be handed over to the U.S. military, which would see the rogue regime “destroyed.”

The threat comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s first U.N. speech Tuesday, with the issue of North Korea expected to dominate his address. On Sunday, members of the White House team offered previews of what the General Assembly will likely hear.

Speaking on CNN, Haley said: “We have pretty much exhausted all the things that we can do at the Security Council at this point.”

“If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behavior, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed,” she added.

While China and Russia have urged diplomacy, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told CBS Sunday that efforts with dialogue had already been exhausted: “We have tried a couple of times to signal to them that we’re ready when they’re ready,” he said. “And they have responded with more missile launches and a nuclear test.”

Trump has criticized the U.N. in the past, famously slamming the organization for its “cheap” marble tiles in a 2012 tweet.

In December he decried the New York-based institution as a “club,” and urged cuts in voluntary contributions paid by the U.S., the U.N.’s largest donor.

Yet Tuesday’s speech is part of a major foreign policy test for the administration, with Trump scheduled to speak to several world leaders, including a joint meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-In.

Trump has spoken with both leaders by phone in recent months as Pyongyang ramped up its missile tests. The hermetic state launched its latest ICBM on Friday, leading U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster to warn, “There is a military option.”

In the latest round of war games in the region, China and Russia on Monday commenced a joint naval exercise close to the Korean Peninsula.