US steps up pressure on N. Korea

By Jun Ji-hye

High-ranking U.S. officials are ratcheting up pressure on North Korea by hinting at a possible pre-emptive strike against Pyongyang to remove its nuclear and missile threats.

Their hawkish remarks come as Pyongyang is reportedly gearing up for an additional nuclear test as well as the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Sunday that President Donald Trump has ordered him to prepare "a full range of options," which experts say would include military action as well as economic and diplomatic sanctions.

McMaster added it was a "prudent" decision to send a U.S. Navy strike group led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to waters close to the Korean Peninsula to rein in the increasing nuclear threats by the North.

The Carl Vinson Strike Group is moving toward the western Pacific region after stopping in Singapore as the U.S. Pacific Command changed its itinerary from sailing to Australia to the Western Pacific.

For his part, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said U.S. military strikes on an air base in Syria in response to its use of deadly chemical weapons against civilians were a warning to other nations, including North Korea, that "a response is likely" once any nation poses a threat.

The U.S. officials made the remarks during U.S. media interviews after summits between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Thursday and Friday, during which the two leaders shared the understanding of the seriousness of the North Korean nuclear issue.

"North Korea has been engaged in a pattern of provocative behavior," McMaster told Fox News Sunday. "This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclear capable regime, and (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping) and President Trump agreed that that is unacceptable, that what must happen is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

McMaster continued: "And so, the president has asked us to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and to our allies and partners in the region."

Secretary Tillerson told ABC's This Week, referring to the U.S. missile attack on Syria, that "the message that any nation can take is if you violate international norms, if you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point a response is likely to be undertaken."

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Regarding the Kim Jong-un regime, Tillerson said Washington has been very clear that its objective is a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, expressing concern over the "significant progress" he said the North has made in its missile development.

"They're working their way towards the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile," he said. "And these are the kinds of progress that give us the greatest concerns. So we have been quite clear with the regime in Pyongyang that that's what we want them to cease."

Tillerson added that his country has no objective to change the regime in North Korea and that the reasons underlying the development of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang were simply not credible.

On Monday, South Korea and China also warned that they will take strong action if Pyongyang conducts "strategic provocations" such as nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile tests.

China's top nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, and his South Korean counterpart Kim Hong-kyun reached the agreement during a meeting in Seoul, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"We shared the need for consistently strengthening pressure and sanctions on the North, including the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, if Pyongyang continues provocations," Kim told reporters after the meeting.

Observers say Washington's continuous hard-line comments on the North are apparently aimed at pressuring not only the North, but also China, its sole major ally.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute, said Monday, that there is a possibility for the North to conduct its "last" nuclear test before the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army, April 25, and before South Korea's May 9 presidential election.

"Then, the North is expected to seek an improvement of inter-Korean relations by offering the new South Korean government the suspension of nuclear tests," he said.

Commenting on the dispatch of the Carl Vinson Strike Group, Seoul's Ministry of National Defense said that it is to beef up the allies' defense posture amid the growing possibility of provocations by the North.

"There are several major events in April such as the 105th anniversary of the birth of the North's founder Kim Il-sung, and the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Army," spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said. "We are making thorough preparations to maintain a robust military readiness posture."

Ministry of Unification spokesman Lee Duck-hang, however, downplayed any possibility for the U.S. to launch a pre-emptive strike on the North, saying, "The government maintains a position to solve North Korean issues peacefully, and the U.S. supports this."