WASHINGTON, Jan 3: The White House has called North Korea “a global threat” and asked countries to step up pressure against it.
“The focus here is to apply maximum pressure on North Korea and the US wants other countries to join it in this,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference yesterday.
“This is a global threat, which is why we’re calling on everybody to step up and do more and we’re going to continue working with a lot of different leaders and other countries to help do that,” she said.
Sanders said the US is keeping all its options “on the table”.
“Our policy on that front hasn’t changed,” she said in response to a question.
Earlier in the day, Trump said the US-led international sanctions and “other pressures” are beginning to have a big impact on the authoritarian North Korean regime after its leader Kim Jong-Un called for a breakthrough in relations with South Korea and said Pyongyang might attend the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang.
South Korea welcomed the North Korean offer and proposed holding high-level talks with Pyongyang.
Sanders said the developments would not change US’ relations with South Korea “which remains stronger than ever”.
“We’re going to continue to work with South Korea to put maximum pressure on North Korea and work towards the ultimate shared goal that we both have,” she said in response to a question. (PTI)
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