[Anchor]

U.S. President Donald Trump has pressured Iran during his UN General Assembly speech, stating that it faces a stark choice between a deal or total annihilation. While the UN General Assembly was underway, U.S. and Iranian delegations met directly for nearly three hours of talks.

Reporting from Washington, this is Jeon Byeong-nam.

[Reporter]

U.S. President Donald Trump enters the UN General Assembly hall.

In his 38-minute speech, Trump strongly pressured Iran by presenting a binary choice between a "deal" and "annihilation."

[Donald Trump / U.S. President: We have a monumental decision to make: do we forge an agreement to rebuild Iran and make it a nation far greater than ever before, or do we swiftly annihilate it, depriving it of the chance to ever kill people and destroy other nations again?]

Trump stated that he will never tolerate Iran possessing nuclear weapons and urged the international community to join the campaign to economically isolate Iran.

[Donald Trump / U.S. President: If we stand united, before long we will see a world freed from Iran's 51-year-old terror threat. Oil prices will also drop more sharply than ever before.]

In the field of artificial intelligence, he emphasized America's superiority over China and opposed moves to expand international regulations.

He also asserted that the war in Ukraine, which has continued for nearly four years and seven months, will soon end.

The Iranian delegation walked out during Trump's speech, but during a subsequent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Trump revealed that the U.S. and Iranian delegations had made contact at the UN headquarters in New York.

[Donald Trump / U.S. President: The meeting lasted for three hours. It was a very good and highly productive meeting. Another meeting is scheduled for the near future.]

Trump claimed that reaching an agreement would clearly benefit Iran, predicting that a deal would be struck right after the midterm elections.

Iran's state broadcaster IRIB also confirmed the development, reporting that the talks were intended to convey Iran's conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

On the other hand, the Iranian military strongly reacted, calling Trump's remarks domestic political propaganda and warning of severe military retaliation.

Meanwhile, no message regarding North Korea was included in Trump's speech today (September 23).

If Trump still maintains the will to resume North Korea-U.S. dialogue, it is projected that he will seek cooperation from Chinese President Xi Jinping during the upcoming U.S.-China summit the day after tomorrow.

(Camera Reporter: Park Eun-ha, Video Editor: Jung Sung-hoon, Designer: Shim Soo-hyun)