The US defense secretary has called North Korea a “clear and present” threat, urging China to recognize Pyongyang as a “strategic liability.” The statement comes after the UN extended sanctions against North Korea over its repeated missile tests.
North Korea poses a “clear and present danger” to the US, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defense summit, in Singapore on Friday.
“The current North Korean program signals a clear intent to acquire nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, including those of intercontinental range, that pose direct and immediate threats to our regional allies, partners and all the world, ” Mattis said, adding that Pyongyang’s actions “are manifestly illegal under international law.”
US once again called on China to deal with its aggressive neighbor.
“The Trump administration is encouraged by China’s renewed commitment to work with the international community toward denuclearization, ” Mattis said, as cited by Reuters. “Ultimately, we believe China will come to recognize North Korea as a strategic liability, not an asset.”
Mattis added that the US is “ working with China on North Korea because that is also a problem for China.”
“China’s declared policy of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula is our policy as well, and also that of Japan and the Republic of Korea [South Korea] , ” he added.
Tensions are running extremely high on the Korean Peninsula. In late May, North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile which landed in the Sea of Japan, about 300km off the Japanese coast.
