US President Donald Trump has spoken from time to time about North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, but he has not given any convincing clues as to his administration’s future course of action.

At least one thing is certain: Trump takes the North Korean problems seriously and he won’t sit idle.

The intensity of his statements on the North has increased recently, especially since it test-fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile on Feb. 12, the first such provocation since he took office.

Reacting to the provocation, Trump called the North “a big, big problem,” a “really, really important” subject, and said he would deal with it “very strongly.” He also said defending against the North’s nuclear and missile threat is “a very, very high priority” for him.

Even considering his usual hyperbole, these expressions are strong enough to make one believe that the Trump administration will be proactive.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Trump indicated that the US would bolster missile defense for allies such as South Korea and Japan and put further pressure on China to resolve the North Korean problem.

What’s noteworthy is that Trump, calling the situation “dangerous,” virtually ruled out the possibility of diplomatic negotiations. He said he was “angry” and that it was “too late” for a meeting with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un. Trump had said during the election campaign that he would be willing to meet Kim over a hamburger.

One action the US could take, he said, is accelerating a missile-defense system for US allies South Korea and Japan. He said it was among “many options available” and that there are talks of doing a lot more than that. “We’ll see what happens,” he said.

Trump gave the interview at a time when an increasing number of people in Washington, including Congress, are talking about a regime change or a pre-emptive, preventive strike as a means to end the North’s nuclear and missile threats.

The recent assassination in Malaysia of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un, is expected to bolster talk of strong actions against the rogue regime in Pyongyang.

In the interview with Reuters, Trump also reaffirmed that pressuring China to force or persuade North Korea to resolve the nuclear issue would be another priority of his policy.

He welcomed China’s recent decision to halt imports of North Korean coal -- an important source of foreign currency for the economically challenged North -- but said it should put more pressure on Pyongyang.

China can solve the problem “very easily if they want to,” he said. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also urged his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to use “all available tools” to moderate North Korea’s destabilizing behavior.

Considering what China has done in the past, however, the pressure may not bear fruit, which could raise calls to impose a “secondary boycott” on those who deal with North Korea.

The alleged use of a deadly nerve agent, a toxic chemical weapon banned by the UN, to kill Kim Jong-nam is also reviving call to put North Korea back on a US list of terrorism sponsor states.

All in all, the latest developments indicate that the Trump administration will try to tackle the North Korean issue in a more proactive and determined manner than in the past. One important thing to note is that any US policy on the North should be formulated and implemented in close consultation with South Korea and Japan.

On Monday, special envoys of the three countries on the North Korean nuclear issue will meet in Washington for the first time since the inauguration of Trump. The meeting should set a unified stance.