- President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning that "we would now be at War with North Korea" but for his personal efforts.
- The claim is impossible to test.
- Trump threatened nuclear war earlier in his presidency as part of his "maximum pressure" strategy.
- Tensions have calmed significantly, culminating in Trump's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore last month.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning said the US would be at war with North Korea if it weren't for him.
In a tweet, Trump claimed credit for a cessation in nuclear testing or rocket launches by North Korea and said his efforts to rid it of nuclear weapons were "going well."
"Many good conversations with North Korea-it is going well! In the meantime, no Rocket Launches or Nuclear Testing in 8 months. All of Asia is thrilled.
"Only the Opposition Party, which includes the Fake News, is complaining. If not for me, we would now be at War with North Korea!"
His suggestion that he single-handedly prevented a war with North Korea is impossible to test.
Earlier in Trump's presidency, manyexpertssaid his "maximum pressure" approach to the US adversary actually made armed conflict significantly more likely.
At one point, he explicitly threatened to unleash "fire and fury like the world has never seen" in response to North Korean aggression.
His recent summit with Kim Jong Un, the first official meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting US president, is perhaps the best sign of reduced tensions, though experts have questioned whether the meeting moved North Korea any closer to giving up its nuclear weapons.
At a press briefing on Monday, the White House announced that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo planned to visit North Korea on Thursday to meet with Kim and "continue the ongoing and important work of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula."
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: North Korean defector: Kim Jong Un 'is a terrorist'