N. Korea should not test Trump’s resolve: Pence
Seoul, April 17: US Vice-President Mike Pence warned North Korea on Monday not to test President Donald Trump’s resolve, declaring that “all options are on the table” in curbing its missile and nuclear weapons programmes.
Defying international pressure, the North on Sunday test-fired another missile as fears grow that it may be preparing for its sixth atomic weapons test.
“We hope to achieve this objective (the North’s denuclearisation) through peaceful means but all options are on the table,” Mr Pence told a press conference in the South Korean capital after his trip to the tense border with the North.
“Just in the past two weeks, the world witnessed the strength and resolve of our new President in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan.
“North Korea would do well not to test his resolve, or the strength of the armed forces of the US in this region,” Mr Pence said at the press conference with South Korea’s acting President Hwang Kyo-Ahn.
Tensions between Pyongyang and Washington have soared in recent weeks, as a series of North Korean missile tests have prompted evermore bellicose warnings from Trump’s administration.
The new and inexperienced US President has indicated he will not allow North Korea to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the western United States.
Mr Pence declared that the era of US “strategic patience” in dealing with the North was over, after more than two decades.
North Korea has “answered our overtures with wilful deception, broken promises and nuclear and missile tests”, he said.