Trump advisers warn North Korea to give up weapons programs
Top advisers to President Donald Trump on Sunday warned North Korea to give up its missile and nuclear weapons programs and to quit making threats against the U.S. and its allies or face destruction.
e warnings came a day after leader Kim Jong Un vowed to continue the weapons programs, saying North Korea is nearing its goal of “equilibrium” in military force with the United States.
ey also came as world leaders begin arriving in New York for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly this week, where North Korea will be high on the agenda.
Trump is making his rst appearance at the UN General Assembly, his biggest moment on the world stage since January’s inauguration. He is scheduled to address the world body, which he has criticized as weak and incompetent, on Tuesday.
Trump tweeted Sunday that he and South Korean President Moon Jae-in discussed North Korea during their latest telephone conversation on Saturday. Trump spoke with Moon from his New Jersey golf club, where aides said he was spending the weekend preparing for his UN debut.
U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said Kim is “going to have to give up his nuclear weapons because the president has said he’s not going to tolerate this regime threatening the United States and our citizens with a nuclear weapon.”
Asked if that meant Trump would launch a military strike, McMaster said “he’s been very
clear about that, that all options are on the table.”
Some doubt Kim — Trump referred to him as “Rocket Man” in Sunday’s tweet — will ever agree to give up his arsenal.
“I think that North Korea is not going to give up its program with nothing on the table,” said Senate intelligence committee member Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat.
Kim has threatened Guam, a U.S. territory in the Paci c, and has red two missiles over Japan, a U.S. ally in Asia, including a missile launched on Friday. North Korea also recently tested its most powerful bomb.
e UN Security Council has voted unanimously twice in recent weeks to tighten economic
sanctions on North Korea, including targeting shipments of oil and other fuel used in missile testing. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said North Korea was starting to “feel the pinch.”
Trump tweeted Sunday that long lines for gas are forming in North Korea and called it “too bad.”
Haley also warned of a tougher U.S. response to future North Korean provocations, saying the Security Council has “pretty much exhausted” all of its options and that she would be happy to turn the matter over to Defence Secretary Jim Mattis “because he has plenty of military options.”
Mattis said
a hydrogen bomb earlier this month that the U.S. will answer any threat from the North with a “massive military response, a response both e ective and overwhelming.”
Trump has threatened to rain “re and fury” on North Korea if the North continues with its threats. Haley said that wasn’t an empty threat from the president but she declined to describe the president’s intentions.
McMaster also addressed published reports that Trump has changed his mind about withdrawing the U.S. from a global climate agreement.
And he suggested that Friday’s bomb attack in London could lead Trump to introduce a stronger travel ban.