SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JIM MATTIS: North Korea’s nuclear threat is accelerating.

In remarks in Seoul with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo at his side, Mattis accused the North of illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear programs — and vowed to defeat any attack.

Mattis said North Korea engages in “outlaw” behavior and that the U.S. will never accept a nuclear North.

He added that regardless of what the North might try, it is overmatched by the firepower and cohesiveness of the decades-old U.S.-South Korean alliance.

“North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs,” he said, adding that U.S.-South Korean military and diplomatic collaboration thus has taken on “a new urgency.”

Here’s some of the firepower SecDef Mattis mentioned. In the air: a B-52 over Guam preparing to exercise with Asian allies. On the ground: a multiple launch rocket system conducting a live fire exercise on a South Korean range. The Trump Administration also employs other forms of threat diplomacy.