President Trump said Friday "I think you know the answer to that" when a reporter asked him in Bedminster, New Jersey whether the U.S. is going to war with North Korea. 
 
 "When you say 'bad solution' are you talking about war? Is the U.S. going to go to war?" the reporter asked Mr. Trump, after the president floated the possibility of a "bad solution" in North Korea. 
 
 Mr. Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, said his Cabinet is "very much in agreement" on the North Korea crisis, although his Cabinet members have toned down his rhetoric. Earlier in the week, Tillerson said Americans should be able to rest easy, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the U.S. is pursuing diplomatic solutions. 
 
 "We're very much in agreement," Mr. Trump said. "I think we're very unified and we have been right from the very beginning. This is something that has to stop. We all feel that very strongly." 
 
 Tillerson also said handling North Korea requires a "combined" message, and the president has "made it clear" he prefers a "diplomatic solution." 
 
 But that might be difficult to tell from the president's recent comments. After Mr. Trump was criticized for his saying North Korea would be met with "fire and fury" unlike the world had ever seen, he later doubled down on his remarks a day later, saying perhaps they weren't tough enough. Mr. Trump on Friday promised "big, big trouble" if North Korea targets the U.S. territory of Guam, and said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will "regret it fast" if that happens. 
 
 Earlier Friday, Mr. Trump dismissed critics who wonder if he is escalating tensions with North Korea. 
 
 "Well you know my critics are only saying that because it's me," Mr. Trump told reporters. "If somebody else uttered the exact same words that I uttered, they'd say 'what a great statement, what a wonderful statement.' They're only doing it but I will tell you, we have tens of millions of people in this country that are so happy with what I'm saying because they're saying finally we have a president that's sticking up for our nation and frankly sticking up for friends and our allies." 
 
 Earlier this week, North Korea announced it is planning to launch rockets that would fly over the islands of Japan and into the ocean, and could land 18 to 25 miles away from the U.S. airbase on Guam. North Korean state television said the launch would be a warning to the U.S. ||||| President Trump on Friday refused to rule out a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, where civil strife has turned violent. 
 
 "I'm not going to rule out a military option," he told reporters at his New Jersey golf club. 
 
 “Venezuela is not very far away, and the people are suffering and they’re dying,” he said. “We have many options for Venezuela, including a possibile military option if necessary.” 
 
 Trump declined to say whether American troops would lead a possible military effort in Venezuela, saying: “We don’t talk about it.” 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 “But a military operation, a military option is certainly something that we could pursue,” he said. 
 
 Tensions in Venezuela have boiled over in recent months, with widespread protests against the increasingly autocratic government of President Nicolas Maduro. 
 
 According to a statement by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders late Friday night, Maduro called and requested a call with Trump on Friday, but the White House refused. 
 
 "Since the start of this Administration, President Trump has asked that Maduro respect Venezuela’s constitution, hold free and fair elections, release political prisoners, cease all human rights violations, and stop oppressing Venezuela’s great people," Sanders said in a statement. "The Maduro regime has refused to heed this call, which has been echoed around the region and the world. Instead Maduro has chosen the path of dictatorship." 
 
 "The United States stands with the people of Venezuela in the face of their continued oppression by the Maduro regime," the statement continued. "President Trump will gladly speak with the leader of Venezuela as soon as democracy is restored in that country." 
 
 The Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions on Maduro in late July after questions about the legitimacy of an election to rewrite the country’s constitution. 
 
 The vote was boycotted by the opposition, who accused Maduro of using the vote to consolidate power. Maduro went ahead with the vote, which created a new pro-government assembly that will rewrite the country’s constitution. 
 
 Venezuela has also been roiled by shortages of food and medicine, intensifying the unrest. 
 
 Ahead of the election last month, the State Department ordered the families of U.S. diplomats out of Venezuela’s capital Caracas amid concerns about “social unrest, violent crime, and pervasive food and medicine shortages.” 
 
 Updated 9:50 p.m. ||||| CARACAS/LIMA (Reuters) - After months of attacking Venezuela’s unpopular President Nicolas Maduro, Latin America came out strongly against U.S. threats of military action against the crisis-hit nation. 
 
 U.S. President Donald Trump’s surprise comments on Friday may bring the beleaguered Maduro some respite in the region, just as Venezuela was on verge of becoming a pariah over its recent installation of a legislative superbody, widely condemned as a power grab by the ruling Socialists. 
 
 Following Trump’s assertion that military intervention in Venezuela was an option, Maduro’s critics are caught between backing the idea of a foreign invasion of Venezuela or supporting a president they call a dictator. 
 
 The sudden escalation of Washington’s response to Venezuela’s crisis preceded U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to the region beginning Sunday. He is set to visit Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Panama. 
 
 Trump did not specify what type of options he had in mind. 
 
 Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino on Friday disparaged Trump’s warning as “craziness” and Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said on Saturday Venezuela rejected “hostile” threats, calling on Latin America to unite against Washington. 
 
 “We want to express gratitude for all the expressions ofsolidarity and rejection of the use of force from governments around the world, including Latin America,” said Arreaza, in a short speech on Saturday. 
 
 “Some of these countries have recently taken positions absolutely contrary to our sovereignty and independence but still have rejected the declarations of the U.S. president.” 
 
 It was one of Maduro’s fiercest critics, Peru, that led the charge in criticizing Trump’s threat, saying it was against United Nations principles. Mexico and Colombia joined in with statements of their own. 
 
 Regional alliance Mercosur added that it rejected the use of force against Venezuela, despite having indefinitely suspended the country last week amid international condemnation of Maduro’s new, all-powerful “constituent Assembly”. 
 
 After four months of deadly protests against his government, Maduro says the assembly is Venezuela’s only hope of obtaining peace by locking in the socialist policies of his mentor and predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez. Critics say the assembly is a bald maneuver by Maduro to cling to power as his popularity slumps under the weight of the country’s economic crisis. 
 
 Peru expelled Venezuela’s ambassador in Lima on Friday, but that did not stop it from criticizing Trump’s threat. 
 
 Venezuela's Presidente Nicolas Maduro gestures as he speaks during a session of the National Constituent Assembly at Palacio Federal Legislativo in Caracas, Venezuela August 10, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino 
 
 “All foreign or domestic threats to resort to force undermine the goal of reinstating democratic governance in Venezuela, as well as the principles enshrined in the U.N. charter,” said Peru’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Luna. 
 
 Peru under President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski had taken the toughest stance yet toward Venezuela’s socialist government, and has openly called Maduro a “dictator”. 
 
 RESCHEDULED ELECTION 
 
 The new legislative superbody, which made waves last weekend by firing a dissident chief prosecutor, took new action on Saturday on the country’s election timetable. It unanimously passed a resolution to move the country’s Dec. 10 governors’ election up to October. 
 
 Assembly members said the decision was made in part because the election had been delayed due to “opposition-led violence.” More than 120 people have died in unrest and anti-government protests since April. 
 
 The National Electoral Council (CNE) was asked by the assembly to set the exact date for the governors’ election. 
 
 Venezuela is undergoing a crisis in which millions are suffering from food and medicine shortages and high inflation. 
 
 Slideshow (5 Images) 
 
 The ruling Socialist Party has for years accused the United States of plotting an invasion as a way of controlling its oil reserves, the world’s largest, through a military intervention similar to the Iraq war. 
 
 Previous U.S. administrations had brushed this off as politicized rhetoric meant to distract from Venezuela’s domestic problems. 
 
 Under former President Barack Obama, the State Department in 2015 made quiet diplomatic overtures that led to several high-level meetings. The effort ultimately foundered as Maduro hardened his stance against opposition critics. 
 
 Venezuela’s Information Minister Vladimir Villegas on Saturday tweeted a picture of the Statue of Liberty holding a machine gun instead of a torch, and a link to an article describing, “A Chronology of U.S. ‘Military Options’ in Latam and the Caribbean.”
– As many fret over the increasingly tense relationship between the US and North Korea, President Trump threw another country into the mix Friday: Venezuela. Speaking to reporters Friday from his New Jersey golf club, flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, and National Security Adviser HR McMaster, Trump offered what Reuters calls a "surprise escalation" on the US response to Venezuela's current political upheaval, in which more than 120 people have been killed and thousands arrested over the past four months. "Venezuela is not very far away, and the people are suffering and they are dying," Trump told reporters, per the Hill. "We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary." When pressed by reporters on whether that meant the US would lead an operation in the South American country, Trump replied, "We don't talk about it, but a military operation—a military option—is certainly something that we could pursue." The US just hit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with financial sanctions in late July, with a statement from Trump noting: "Maduro is not just a bad leader. He is now a dictator." The Pentagon told Reuters it has yet to receive any instructions from the president regarding Venezuela. Meanwhile, one reporter circled back to North Korea during Trump's appearance, asking, "Is the US going to go to war?" after Trump mentioned a possible "bad solution" to the Korea problem, per CBS News. "I think you know the answer to that," the president replied.