N Korea issue: Mattis says US in favour of diplomatic solution

NEW DELHI: The United States wants to resolve the standoff with North Korea through diplomacy, defence secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday.

Washington is now putting its efforts together to denuclearise Pyongyang’s weapons programme, said Mattis, who is on a two-day visit to India, the first by a member of Donald Trump’s cabinet.

“We maintain the capability to deter North Korea’s most dangerous threats. But we also will back up our diplomats in a manner to keep this as long as possible in the diplomatic realm,” Mattis told journalists in Delhi after talks with his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman.

“Our goal is to solve this diplomatically,” he said, a comment amounting to a slight climbdown after an escalation in rhetoric between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

After a war of words and tweets from Trump that Kim “won’t be around much longer,” the administration clarified on Monday that it is not seeking to overthrow North Korea’s government.

Pyongyang interpreted Trump’s tweet as a declaration of war.

CHINA SEEKS PEACE

Warning there would be “no winner” in the event of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, China on Tuesday urged North Korea and the US to stop their escalating war of words and sit down for talks on cooling the recent spike in tensions. Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang’s comments reinforce China’s position that all sides should avoid provoking each other following biting new UN sanctions on the North.