The White House played host Wednesday to an all-Senators briefing focused on the North Korea threat. One lawmaker called the session \u00ab\u00a0sobering.\u00a0\u00bb<\/b>
The White House played host Wednesday to an all-senators briefing focused on the North Korea threat \u2014 a meeting which, though serious in tone, yielded few new specifics.
White House officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Joseph Dunford, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, briefed the senators.
President Donald Trump also made a brief stop at the meeting, a White House official told NBC News, staying for \u00ab\u00a0just a few minutes\u00a0\u00bb at the top of the gathering.
It was a session that Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, called \u00ab\u00a0sobering.\u00a0\u00bb
But while senators who spoke with NBC News stressed the seriousness of the threat of an increasingly aggressive North Korea poses, few specifics of the administration’s next steps were made publicly available after the meeting.
A joint readout from Tillerson, Mattis, and Coats described the president’s future approach as aiming to \u00ab\u00a0pressure North Korea into dismantling its nuclear, ballistic missile, and proliferation programs by tightening economic sanctions and pursuing diplomatic measures with our Allies and regional partners.\u00a0\u00bb
While the U. S. seeks \u00ab\u00a0stability and the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula \u00a0\u00bb the statement warns that \u00ab\u00a0we remain prepared to defend ourselves and our Allies.\u00a0\u00bb
A main focal point of the White House strategy has been pressuring China to become more deeply involved.
A senior administration official said there have been \u00ab\u00a0some early indications of China doing a better job\u00a0\u00bb enforcing existing UN sanctions on North Korea, as well as acknowledging the threat North Korea poses to China’s security, giving an impetus to \u00ab\u00a0take this problem on in new ways.\u00a0\u00bb
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters after the briefing he was \u00ab\u00a0cautiously optimistic\u00a0\u00bb about early signs of Chinese cooperation.
\u00ab\u00a0It appears that President Trump’s discussions with President Xi at Mar-a-Lago had some beneficial impact. Time will tell.\u00a0\u00bb
Other senators separately echoed the sentiment.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has previously spoken about \u00ab\u00a0positive signs with respect to\u00a0\u00bb China and the president’s relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping. That relationship, Spicer said Tuesday, \u00ab\u00a0is definitely paying off dividends.\u00a0\u00bb
Asked about why senators converged at the White House for the briefing, Coons said the seriousness of the threat \u00ab\u00a0requires us to act in a non-partisan way.\u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0I think it makes the American people safer if the world sees our government acting in a concerted, serious and thoughtful manner rather than taking partisan shots about did we meet in the Senate did we meet in the White House.\u00a0\u00bb
While Coons said he learned things he hadn’t known before the briefing, other senators seemed to disagree.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, called it \u00ab\u00a0an OK briefing, \u00a0\u00bb reiterating the sentiment when asked if that meant he didn’t learn much. \u00ab\u00a0It was OK.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n