US seeks peaceful solution

White House: We are not opening the door to war with North Korea

NEW DELHI: The United States wants a diplomatic fix to the North Korean nuclear crisis, defence secretary Jim Mattis said, as China warned there would be “no winners” in a war on the Korean peninsula.

Tensions soared after Pyongyang claimed the United States had declared war against it and threatened to shoot down US bombers, in an escalating spat between President Donald Trump and the isolated regime.

After the White House took the unusual step of denying it had opened the door to conflict with the nuclear-armed Asian nation, Mattis said Washington’s goal was “to solve this diplomatically”.

“We maintain the capability to deter North Korea’s most dangerous threats, but also to back up our diplomats in a manner that keeps this as long as possible in the diplomatic realm,” he said in New Delhi yester- day after talks with his Indian counterpart.

The Pentagon chief ’s emphasis on diplomacy comes as Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un traded barbs in the wake of the North’s sixth nuclear bomb and multiple missile tests.

Pyongyang says it needs the weapons to defend itself against the threat of a US invasion.

The North’s foreign minister Ri Yong-ho on Monday called a press conference to hit back at a US bomber mission near the North’s coastline and a slew of bombastic warnings from the US president.

Taking umbrage at Trump’s weekend tweet that North Korea’s leadership “won’t be around much longer” if it kept up its threats, Ri told reporters that the international community hoped a “war of words” would “not turn into real action”.

“However, last weekend, Trump claimed our leadership would not be around much longer,” said Ri, who attended this year’s United Nations General Assembly session. “He declared a war on our country.”

The White House described Ri’s interpretation of Trump’s sabrerattling as “absurd”.

Alarm over Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes dominated the gathering of world leaders at the UN, amid fears the heated rhetoric could accidentally trigger a war.

China, the North’s neighbour and only major ally, warned yesterday that any conflict would have “no winners”.

Fears of a clash were sharpened after US bombers flew off the coast of North Korea on Saturday – going further north of the demilitarised zone than any US aircraft had flown this century.

“Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to take counter-measures, including the right to shoot down US strategic bombers even when they are not yet inside the airspace border of our country,” Ri said.

“The question of who won’t be around much longer will be answered then.” — AFP

We maintain the capability ... to back up our diplomats in a manner that keeps this as long as possible in the diplomatic realm.

Jim Mattis