Guam Governor Calls Kim Jong Un A 'Bully', Backs Trump’s Rhetoric

President Donald Trump escalated tensions with North Korea last week threatening to unleash “fire and fury, the likes of which the world has never seen.” The governor of Guam, a U.S. territory that’s only around 2,100 miles away and well-within the range of North Korean missiles, backs the president’s rhetoric.

“Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!” the president tweeted on Friday, doubling down on his “fire and fury” comment.

Guam’s Republican governor, Eddie Calvo, said Trump was being unfairly criticized for his stern warning towards North Korea, and its leader Kim Jong Un. Some leaders have urged Trump to tone down his rhetoric, but Calvo thinks it's the type of warning necessary.

“Sometimes a bully can only be stopped with a punch in the nose,” Calvo told AFP Monday. “Kim Jong Un is a bully with some very strong weapons... a bully has to be countered very strongly.”

Trump’s amped up rhetoric came after it was unveiled by U.S. intelligence that North Korea, who's long sought to have nuclear weapons, has developed a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could fit in a missile warhead. North Korea has been very aggressive in the past few months in the development of their missile program. The country’s military successfully launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the continental U.S.

North Korean state run media said last week that the military was preparing a plan for Kim’s approval outlining a test firing of four missiles near Guam. The missiles would fly over Japan and “bracket” Guam, hitting the ocean on either side of the island. Guam is home to two critical U.S. military bases, U.S. Naval Base Guam and Andersen Air Force Base. The bases are home to around 5,000 service men and women and their families.

“President Trump is not your conventional elected leader, what he says and how he says it is a lot different from what was said by previous presidents,” Calvo told AFP.

North Korean state media, known for its bluster, fired back at Trump calling him “bereft of reason,” and saying only “absolute force” would work on him.

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system was installed on the island in 2013, at another tense time between the U.S. and North Korea. The THAAD system is intended to knock down the type of missiles North Korea could deploy.

Despite the threat of nuclear weapons, Trump thinks tourism to the small island will be just fine. Trump called Calvo on Saturday to assure the governor.

“I can say this: You’re going to go up, like, tenfold with the expenditure of no money,” Trump said during the call which the governor posted on social media.