US ready to talk to Kim

DEFENCE CHIEF: KEEP IT IN DIPLOMATIC REALM FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

The US wants a diplomatic solution to the escalating nuclear crisis with North Korea, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said yesterday, toning down the shrill rhetoric between the two countries.

“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.

“That is our goal, to solve this diplomatically, and I believe that Trump has been very clear on this issue.”

President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un have become embroiled in a bitter war of words after the North detonated its sixth nuclear bomb and test-fired intercontinental missiles – saying it needs to defend itself against the threat of a US invasion.

Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons ambitions has increased international fears of conflict.

Mattis said the US was continuing to put pressure on the North’s leadership through diplomatic channels.

“We continue to maintain the diplomatically-led effort in the United Nations. You have seen unanimous United Nations Security Council resolutions passed that have increased the pressure, economic pressure and diplomatic pressure, on the North,” he said.

China warned yesterday that any conflict on the Korean peninsula would have “no winners”.

China hopes Washington and Pyongyang realise that “blindly flaunting one’s superiority with words to show off will only increase the risk of confrontation and reduce the room for policy manoeuvres”. – AFP