U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson accused North Korea on Friday
of threatening the entire world, and President Donald Trump’s national
security adviser said the administration is not ruling out a possible
military action against the regime.
The reactions came after North Korea fired a missile over Japan for
the second time in under a month in defiance of international pressure
over its missile and nuclear programs.
“There is a military option,” H.R. McMaster, Trump’s security adviser
said during a press briefing at the White House, flanked by U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.
But he clarified that the military option is not a preferred option, hoping that all other diplomatic moves will succeed.
McMaster urged all nations to do more to rein in the North, which he
called “one of the world’s most urgent and dangerous security problems.”
In the latest attempt to deal with an issue that has repeatedly
frustrated world powers, the U.N. Security Council was due to meet on
Friday to discuss the missile launch, at the request of the United
States and Japan.
The council’s 15 members unanimously stepped up sanctions against
North Korea over a nuclear bomb test it staged on Sept. 3, imposing a
ban on North Korea’s textile exports and capping its imports of crude
oil.
North Korea has launched dozens of missiles under leader Kim Jong Un
as it accelerates a weapons program designed to give it the ability to
target the United States with a powerful, nuclear-tipped missile.
Tillerson said in a speech to foreign officials that the tests
threaten the world and stressed the United States was working closely
with regional allies Japan and South Korea.
“In East Asia, an increasingly aggressive and isolated regime in
North Korea threatens democracies in South Korea, Japan, and more
importantly, and more recently, has expanded those threats to the United
States, endangering the entire world,” Tillerson said.
Taking a tougher line than Tillerson, White House National Security
Adviser H.R. McMaster said the United States was fast running out of
patience for diplomatic solutions on North Korea.
“We’ve been kicking the can down the road, and we’re out of road,” McMaster told reporters.
“For those … who have been commenting on a lack of a military option,
there is a military option,” he said, adding that it would not be the
Trump administration’s preferred choice.
North Korea’s latest test missile flew over Hokkaido in northern
Japan on Friday and landed in the Pacific about 2,000 km (1,240 miles)
to the east, the Japanese government said.
It traveled about 3,700 km (2,300 miles) in total, according to South
Korea’s military, far enough to reach the U.S. Pacific territory of
Guam, which the North has threatened before.
“The range of this test was significant since North Korea
demonstrated that it could reach Guam with this missile,” the Union of
Concerned Scientists advocacy group said in a statement. However, the
accuracy of the missile, still at an early stage of development, was
low, it said.
On Thursday, Tillerson called on China, Pyongyang’s only ally, and
Russia to apply more pressure on North Korea by “taking direct actions
of their own.
But Beijing pushed back.
Trump will meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly
in New York next Thursday, McMaster said.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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