Mattis: NKorea threat would bring massive military response

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Sunday shot back at North Korea's claimed test of a hydrogen bomb with a blunt threat, saying the U.S. will answer any threat from the North with a "massive military response — a response both effective and overwhelming." Earlier, President Donald Trump threatened to halt all trade with countries doing business with the North, a veiled warning to China, and faulted South Korea for its "talk of appeasement."

The tough talk from America's commander in chief and the retired Marine general he picked to oversee the Pentagon came as the Trump administration searched for a response to the escalating crisis. Kim Jong Un's regime on Sunday claimed "perfect success" in an underground test of what it called a hydrogen bomb. It was the North's sixth nuclear test since 2006 — the first since Trump took office in January — and involved a device potentially vastly more powerful than a nuclear bomb.