Pence: US won’t rest until North Korea gives up nuclear weapons
TOKYO — The U.S. will not relent until it achieves its objective of ensuring the Korean Peninsula is free of nuclear weapons, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday while visiting Japan.
After meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other leaders, Pence told reporters that President Donald Trump was confident that economic and diplomatic pressure has a chance of compelling North Korea to cooperate.
“It is our belief by bringing together the family of nations with diplomatic and economic pressure we have a chance of achieving a freeze on the Korean Peninsula,” Pence said.
“We will not rest and will not relent until we obtain the objective of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” he said.
The Trump administration has signaled a more forceful U.S. stance toward North Korea’s recent missile tests and threats, including a warning from Trump that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has “gotta behave.”
So Pence struck a stern tone after arriving at a U.S. naval base from South Korea.
“We appreciate the challenging times in which the people of Japan live with increasing provocations from across the Sea of Japan,” he said. “We are with you 100 percent.”
On Monday, Pence traveled to the tense Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea, where he warned North Korea’s leaders that after years of testing the U.S. and South Korea with its nuclear ambitions, “the era of strategic patience is over.”
A senior North Korean official then accused the United States of bringing the countries to the brink of thermonuclear war.