As a US strike group led by an aircraft carrier steamed toward the Korean peninsula on Sunday, a senior official said President Donald Trump has asked to be provided with a range of options to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear threat.
WASHINGTON: As a US strike group led by an aircraft carrier steamed toward the Korean peninsula on Sunday (Apr 9), a senior official said President Donald Trump has asked to be provided with a range of options to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear threat.
The US naval move will certainly raise tensions in the region and comes hard on the heels of a US cruise missile strike on Syria that was widely interpreted as putting Pyongyang on warning over its refusal to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
North Korea denounced Thursday’s attack as an act of « intolerable aggression » and one that justified « a million times over » the North’s push toward a credible nuclear deterrent.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insisted in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the United States does not intend to try to remove the regime of Kim Jong-Un.
« That is not our objective and so the whole reasons underlying the development of a nuclear program in North Korea are simply not credible, » Tillerson told the ABC programme « This Week. «
He said the United States expects China, the main ally of North Korea, to do more to rein in the regime in Pyongyang.
« They have indicated that they will, and I think we need to allow them time to take actions, » Tillerson said.
US National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster insisted, however, that in the meantime it is « prudent » to send the strike group to the Korean peninsula, criticising North Korea as a rogue, nuclear-armed nation engaged in provocative behaviour.
« Presidents before and President Trump agreed that that is unacceptable, that what must happen is the denuclearisation of the peninsula, » McMaster told Fox News.
« The president has asked them to be prepared to give us a full range of options to remove that threat, » he added, apparently referring to Trump’s advisers.
