"We have pretty much exhausted all the things that we can do at the Security Council at this point," Haley said at a Sunday White House briefing, adding that there is only so much the UN Security Council can do "when you cut 90 percent of the trade and 30 percent of the oil," to the People's Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK).
"I have no problem kicking it [to] General Mattis because I think he has plenty of options," she said, referring to US Defense Secretary James Mattis.
On Thursday, North Korea launched a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean despite the UN Security Council's new sanctions on DPRK textile exports and a cap on crude oil imports.
China has cautioned the US to not threaten North Korea. However, just last month, US President Donald Trump tweeted that Washington will meet a North Korean threat with "fire and fury," if necessary.
When asked about Trump's tweet, Haley replied that, "It was not an empty threat.'
"If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behavior, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed. And we all know that. And none of us want that. None of us want war," she claimed in an interview with CNN.
"We're trying every other possibility that we have, but there's a whole lot of military options on the table," she said.
