WASHINGTON/SEOUL,
Aug 30 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared "talking
is not the answer" to the tense standoff with North Korea over its
nuclear
missile development, but his defense chief swiftly asserted that diplomatic options
remain, and Russia demanded U.S. restraint.
Trump's
comment, a day after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over Japan that drew
U.N. and other international condemnation, renewed his tough rhetoric toward
reclusive, nuclear-armed and increasingly isolated North Korea.
"The
U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25
years," Trump, who just last week said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was
"starting to respect" the United States, wrote on Twitter.
"Talking is not the answer!"
When asked
by reporters just hours later if the United States was out of diplomatic
solutions with North Korea amid rising tensions after a series of missile tests
by Pyongyang, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis replied: "No."
"We are
never out of diplomatic solutions," Mattis said before a meeting with his
South Korean counterpart at the Pentagon. "We continue to work together,
and the minister and I share a responsibility to provide for the protection of
our nations, our populations and our interests."
Top Trump
administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary
of Defense Jim Mattis, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford and
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats will hold classified briefings for
members of the U.S. Congress on Sept. 6, congressional aides said.
Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by telephone with Tillerson and urged the
United States to refrain from any military action on the Korean peninsula that
would be "fraught with unpredictable consequences," Russia's Foreign
Ministry said.
Trump, who
has vowed not to let North Korea develop nuclear missiles that can hit the
mainland United States, had said on Tuesday "all options are on the
table," a veiled reference to military force.
Lavrov also
said Russia, which wields veto power on the U.N. Security Council, believed any
further sanctions on North Korea would be counter-productive, the ministry
added.
Japan urged
fresh sanctions. In Geneva, U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said discussions
were under way among world powers on what kind of further sanctions could
imposed.
North Korea
said the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile on Tuesday was to
counter U.S. and South Korean military drills and was a first step in military
action in the Pacific on "containing" the U.S. island territory of
Guam.
The
15-member U.N. Security Council on Tuesday condemned the firing of the missile
over Japan as "outrageous," and demanded that North Korea halt its
weapons program but the U.S.-drafted statement did not threaten new sanctions.
Trump's
mention of payments to North Korea appeared to be a reference to previous U.S.
aid to Pyongyang.
A U.S.
Congressional Research Service report said that between 1995 and 2008, the
United States provided North Korea with more than $1.3 billion in assistance,
mostly for food and energy. The aid was part of a nuclear deal that North Korea
later violated.
The latest
tweet by the Republican U.S. president drew criticism from some quarters in
Washington. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy wrote on Twitter: "Bar is
high, but this is perhaps the most dangerous, irresponsible tweet of his entire
Presidency. Millions of lives at stake – not a game."
Mattis and
Tillerson have emphasized finding a diplomatic solution on North Korea, and
have used softer tones than Trump on this and other matters.
For example,
days after Trump vowed on Aug. 8 to unleash "fire and fury" against
North Korea if it threatened the United States, the two wrote a Wall Street
Journal commentary assuring Pyongyang that "The U.S. has no interest in
regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea."
North Korea
had threatened to fire four missiles into the sea near Guam, home to a major
U.S. military presence, after Trump's "fire and fury" remark.
'KEY
MILESTONE'
The
Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency and the crew of the guided-missile destroyer
USS John Paul Jones conducted a "complex missile defense flight test"
off Hawaii early on Wednesday, resulting in the intercept of a medium-range
ballistic missile target, the agency said.
The agency's
director, Lieutenant General Sam Greaves, called the test "a key
milestone" in giving U.S. Navy Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense ships an
enhanced capability, but did not mention North Korea.
The United
States and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because
their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea routinely
says it will never give up its weapons programs, calling them necessary to
counter perceived American hostility.
North Korea
has conducted numerous ballistic missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions,
but firing a projectile over mainland Japan was a rare and provocative move.
Japan pushed
the United States on Wednesday to propose new U.N. Security Council sanctions
on North Korea, which diplomats said could target the country's laborers
working abroad, oil supply and textile exports. Diplomats expected resistance
from Russia and fellow veto-wielding power China, particularly given new
measures were only recently imposed after Pyongyang staged two long-range
missile launches in July.
Trump and
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke by telephone and confirmed their
"continuing, close cooperation" regarding Pyongyang's latest launch,
the White House said.
Speaking
during a visit to the Japanese city of Osaka, British Prime Minister Theresa
May called on China, North Korea's main ally and trading partner, to put more
pressure on North Korea, echoing Trump's view.
Asked about
her comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that some
"relevant sides," when it comes to sanctions, "storm to the
front, but when it comes to pushing for peace they hide at the very back."
(Additional
reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul, Philip Wen and Michael Martina in Beijing,
Susan Heavey, Yeganeh Torbati, Tim Ahmann, David Alexander and Patricia
Zengerle in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Kanishka Singh
in Bengaluru and William James in Osaka, Japan; Writing by Will Dunham and Lisa
Lambert; Editing by Alistair Bell and James Dalgleish)
People fill
the square of the main railway station to watch a televised news broadcast of
the test-fire of an inter-continental ballistic rocket Hwasong-12, Wednesday,
August 30, 2017, in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
called for more weapons launches targeting the Pacific Ocean to advance his
country's ability to contain Guam, state media said, a day after Pyongyang for
the first time flew a ballistic missile designed to carry a nuclear payload
over Japan.
© (AP
Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon) People fill the square of the main railway station to
watch a televised news broadcast of the test-fire of an inter-continental ballistic
rocket Hwasong-12, Wednesday, August 30, 2017, in Pyongyang, North…
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