Full Senate is asked to W. House over N. Korea threat

THE TRUMP administration has invited all 100 U.S. senators to the White House for a briefing on North Korea as tensions with the rogue regime continue to mount.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the briefing scheduled for Wednesday will be led by Secretary of State Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It’s unclear if President Trump will attend.

Spicer said the extremely rare full Senate briefing was convened by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and that the White House will serve as host.

“North Korea is a big world problem . . . people have put blinders on for decades,” Trump said Monday during an appearance with United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

He called the country “a real threat to the world.”

The announcement of the unusual briefing came as Haley said the U.S. will strike North Korea if it attacks a military base or tests an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Asked about the threshold for military action amid concerns dictator Kim Jong Un (photo) was on the verge of testing a nuclear weapon, Haley said the U.S. isn’t looking for a fight “unless he gives us a reason to do something.” “If you see him attack a military base, if you see some sort of intercontinental missile, then obviously we’re going to (take action),” Haley said on NBC’s “Today Show.” Haley added that North Korea’s recent detention of Tony Kim, an American teaching accounting at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, was an effort by the regime to “have a bargaining chip” in any talks with the U.S. “What we’re dealing with is a leader who is flailing right now, and he’s trying to show his citizens he has muscle,” Haley told “CBS This Morning.”

Tony Kim also goes by his Korean name Kim Sang-duk. It wasn’t clear why he was being held.

At least two other U.S. citizens are also in custody in North Korea.

Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate, was sentenced in March of last year to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly trying to steal a propaganda banner from a wall in a Pyongyang hotel.

Last April, Kim Dong Chul, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Korean origin, was sentenced to 10 years of labor for espionage.

“The protection of United States citizens is one of our government’s highest priorities,” Spicer said.