TRUMP AND ROCKET MAN CLASH AGAIN – AT 10:15 A.M. ET:  The rhetoric is escalating.  We must hold firm.  From Fox: 

Amid new North Korean threats to test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean, President Trump tweeted Friday that the rogue regime's leader would be "tested like never before."

Trump, during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week, warned the U.S. would "totally destroy" North Korea if Pyongyang continued its provocative actions, leading North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to up the ante by calling Trump "deranged." North Korea escalated the situation further when the nation's foreign minister revealed Pyongyang could conduct the H-bomb test, and, between tweets about healthcare and "The Russia hoax," Trump fired back.

"Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!" Trump wrote.

Trump has previously derided Kim Jong Un as "rocket man," both on Twitter and during his U.N. speech. But on Friday, Trump didn't use the playful moniker.

The Yonhap news agency reported Thursday on the hydrogen bomb threat from North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Ri framed the possible new nuke test as a response to Trump's U.N. speech.

"This could probably mean the strongest hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific Ocean. Regarding which measures to take, I don't really know since it is what Kim Jong Un does," Ri said.

Such a test would be considered a major provocation by the U.S., South Korea and Japan. Ri was scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday, a day later than previously scheduled.

COMMENT:   Some "experts" are warning against the rising rhetoric.  These are the same "experts" who've been kicking the can down the road on North Korea for more than two decades.  They were dead wrong, but, as a famous comedian once observed, few in America ever resign in shame.

September 22,  2017