Denmark is increasing defense spending in Greenland, said a Danish official Tuesday who called the announcement's timing with President-elect Trump's suggestion that the U.S. should own the territory an "irony of fate.

Trump again having designs on Greenland comes after the president-elect suggested over the weekend that the U.S. could retake control of the Panama Canal if something isn't done to ease rising shipping costs required for using the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.