US VP Pence pledges to ‘intensify’ new sanctions against N.Korea after Games

US Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday Washington would soon unveil its “toughest sanctions ever” on North Korea, adding that the regime in Pyongyang would not be allowed to “hijack” the upcoming Olympics.

Speaking in Japan before attending the opening ceremony of the Winter Games in South Korea, Pence pledged that Washington would “intensify its maximum pressure campaign” on the North, working with Tokyo.

“I’m announcing today that the United States will soon unveil the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever,” he said, without giving further details.

Pence’s three-day visit to Japan came as Washington seeks to bolster ties with its allies in the region and maintain pressure on the regime in Pyongyang despite a recent thaw on the peninsula.

“All options are on the table and the US has deployed some of our most advanced military assets to Japan and the wider region to protect our homeland and our allies and we will continue to,” vowed Pence.

To highlight what Washington calls the regime’s human rights “abuses,” the vice president will attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics with the father of the late former North Korea prisoner Otto Warmbier.

The US and North Korea have been locked in a fierce war of words, with US President Donald Trump mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as “rocket man” and the young dictator threatening to rain nuclear destruction on the US.

But Kim has taken a more conciliatory tone in 2018, calling for detente with the South Koreans and accepting an invitation for his country to participate in what is being billed as the “peace Olympics.”

Nevertheless, the peninsula remains tense, with the North slamming anti-Pyongyang activists who protested against its participation as a “spasm of psychopaths.”

For his part, Abe said that Japan and the US had “confirmed... that we can never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.”

Abe added that the allies would urge other countries not to be “captivated by the charm offensive of North Korea.”