N. Korea rhetoric stays on boil

Time remains for diplomacy, sanctions, U.S. officials say

WASHINGTON — Tension between the United States and North Korea remained high Sunday as Pyongyang released propaganda videos showing U.S. planes and an aircraft carrier under attack.

The videos came after President Donald Trump derided North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, by calling him “little rocketman” and vowing at the United Nations to “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatens the United States or its allies.

U.S. officials were more restrained in their words Sunday. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin repeated the insistence that all options, including military force, remain on the table. But he lingered more on discussing how he has greater authority to punish countries, companies and individuals who trade with North Korea under an executive order signed by Trump last week. And he downplayed the likelihood of nuclear war.

“The president doesn’t want to be in a nuclear war,” he said on the ABC show “This Week.” “And we will do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t occur.”

And Sen. Cory Gardner, R-colo., who has pushed stronger sanctions against North Korea and those who trade with it, said there is still room for diplomacy and tougher sanctions that aim to bring North Korea to the negotiating table.

“We have a long ways to go to continue to ratchet up the economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea and the enablers of North Korea,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

In Pyongyang, the rhetoric and the images evoked the possibility of war on the horizon.

Photoshopped pictures from a state-owned propaganda website, DPRK Today, purported to show a North Korean missile making a direct hit on B-1B Lancer bombers and an F-35 fighter jet.

Another video on the website showed a missile launched from a North Korean submarine strike the USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered supercarrier.