Donald Trump's stance on North Korea is 'terrifying', says Shadow Defence Secretary at Labour conference

'It is absolutely unthinkable that we should think in terms of a military solution to North Korea'

Nia Griffith said Donald Trump was not even in control of his own party (PA)

Labour's Shadow Defence Secretary has criticised Donald Trump’s “terrifying” rhetoric on North Korea, saying it is "absolutely unthinkable" that there could be a military solution to the conflict over the communist state’s ongoing missile tests.

Speaking at a fringe event at the party’s annual conference in Brighton, Nia Griffith also suggested the US President was being sidelined by "more professional people" in Washington.

She said: “It is absolutely unthinkable that we should think in terms of a military solution to North Korea.

“The sort of language that Trump is using is terrifying and I think that more professional people in the United States are dealing with things in a rather different way.

“There is absolutely no way that we can be taking a military approach to this one.”

Mr Trump has been engaged in a war of words with Pyongyang in recent weeks. Last month, he threatened to unleash “fire and fury the like of which the world has never seen” against North Korea after it refused to bow to international pressure to stop testing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

The Republican has also referred to the country’s president, Kim Jong-un, as “little rocket man” and said North Korea “won’t be around much longer” if it continues to make threats against the US.

Ms Griffith also launched a staunch defence of Nato – an organisation that has previously been the subject of criticism from Mr Trump and Ms Griffith’s own party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

She said: “It was the Labour Party that was a founder member of Nato and these are Western allies who we’ve worked with very, very closely.

“I really do not think we should assume that Trump is the dominant view in Nato. What a horrifying thought. He’s not even the dominant view among his own party in his own country.

“We absolutely have to try to maintain stability. It’s stability, diplomacy and de-escalation that we have to work on and it’s through Nato that we are going to be able to do that.”