The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. on N. Korea: ‘Maximum pressure and engagement’
Ideas focus on how to get nation to abandon nuclear program.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has settled on its North Korea strategy after a twomonth review: “Maximum pressure and engagement.”
U.S. officials said Friday the president’s advisers weighed a range of ideas for how to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, including military options and trying to overthrow the isolated communist dictatorship’s leadership. At the other end of the spectrum, they looked at the notion of accepting North Korea as a nuclear state.
In the end, however, they settled on a policy that appears to represent continuity.
The administration’s emphasis,
the officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of China, North Korea’s dominant trade partner. The officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity.
The new strategy will be deployed at a time of escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula. U.S., South Korean and other officials are closely monitoring the North amid indications it could conduct another missile test or nuclear explosion to coincide with an important national anniversary this weekend.
North Korea threatened Friday to attack major U.S. military bases in South Korea, and China warned that tensions on the Korean Peninsula could spin out of control.
“The United States and South Korea and North Korea are engaging in tit for tat, with swords drawn and bows bent, and there have been storm clouds gathering,” China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said in Beijing, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
“We urge all sides to no longer engage in mutual provocation and threats, whether through words or deeds, and don’t push the situation to the point where it can’t be turned around and gets out of hand,” Wang said after meeting with his visiting French counterpart, JeanMarc Ayrault.
Pyongyang has undertaken five nuclear tests since 2006, and an influential Washington think tank estimated Friday that North Korea already could have up to 30 bombs.