A top US general with responsibility for protecting the US from foreign attack said North Korea's test of a nuclear weapon was taking the nation on the path to getting 'thumped'.
Lieutenant-General Joseph Inge, the deputy commander of US Northern Command, which has responsibility for defending US territory, made his comments to an audience of army officers and defence contractors at the US Army's major annual conference.
'Many of you served in Korea and you know the people there are just flat-ass unpredictable. What they'll do next, how their logic works, is fundamentally different from our logic,' General Inge said.
'Because most of us would agree that setting off a nuclear explosion and building a weapon you can put on the tip of a missile is not the way to get your opposition to come to the negotiating table. It's probably a good way to get your butt thumped, if you continue to persist.'
The general also showed the audience a poster that he said was displayed during a parade in North Korea. The poster pictured a missile with writing in Korean that the general said meant: 'North Korea is united in one mind, ready to fight to the death. America: Look straight at the North Korean national power.'
'Clearly it's propaganda for their people but it tells you something about the people who are building this capability,' he said.