US vows to use diplomacy to resolve N Korea threat

North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is an urgent national security threat and the US will exert pressure through diplomatic measures and tighter economic sanctions, the Trump administration has said.

The US State Department, defence and intelligence chiefs issued a statement yesterday after briefing senators on Washington’s policy on North Korea – a policy some observers said sounds similar to that of the Obama administration.

The statement said President Donald Trump aims to press North Korea into dismantling its nuclear, ballistic missile and proliferation programmes and is engaging the international community to achieve that and persuade Kim Jong Un’s government “to de-escalate and return to the path of dialogue”.

The US “remains open to negotiations” to achieve denuclearisation in the Korean Peninsula, but the statement adds: “We remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies.”

Meanwhile, North Korea’s UN Mission has said the government will react to “a total war” with the United States with a nuclear strike.

The mission said North Korea will “surely win a victory in the deathdefying struggle against the US imperialists”.

The statement said the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – the country’s official name – “can never be frightened” by the Trump administration’s effort to bring the country “into submission” by deploying a nuclear aircraft carrier strike group to waters off the Korean Peninsula.

The mission said: “It is an unshakable will of the DPRK to go to the end if the US wants to remain unchanged in its confrontational stance.”

It said the DPRK’s “heaviest counteractions” in response to “provocations of any forms and levels from the US” will include a sudden pre-emptive attack involving manoeuvres on the ground, in the seas, underwater and in the air “and various other methods”.

North Korea conducted livefire artillery drills on Tuesday, the 85th anniversary of the founding of its million-person Korean People’s Army.

On the same day, a US guidedmissile submarine docked in South Korea.

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft super-carrier is also headed toward the peninsula for a joint exercise with South Korea.