Press. voanews.com
U.S. President
Donald Trump has asked officials to give him options for removing the threat of
a nuclear-armed North Korea, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said
Sunday. As a U.S. Navy strike group steamed toward the Korean Peninsula to send
a message to North Korea, McMaster told Fox News, "This is a rogue regime
that is now a nuclear-capable regime. ... 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 our allies and partners in that region."
McMaster
described the U.S. decision to send the Carl Vinson Strike Group to safeguard
U.S. interests in the Western Pacific as "prudent." He said that
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed at their summit in Florida last
week that Pyongyang's "provocative behavior" developing nuclear
weapons was unacceptable.
"Presidents
before and President Trump agreed this is unacceptable, that what must happen
is the denuclearization of the peninsula," McMaster said. North Korea has
been trying to develop a long-range missile carrying a nuclear warhead that is
capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, a distance of about 8,000 kilometers. It
has staged five nuclear tests so far and could be preparing a sixth.
North Korea last
week conducted a ballistic missile test in spite of U.N. Security Council
resolutions banning such launches. U.S.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, without directly naming North Korea, told ABC
News, "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."
The Carl Vinson
Strike Group was making a port call in Singapore and was scheduled to sail for
Australia when the U.S. Pacific Command ordered the ships to sail north
instead.
“Third Fleet
ships operate forward with a purpose: to safeguard U.S. interests in the
Western Pacific,” Commander Dave Benham, Director of Media Operations for the
U.S. Pacific Command Third Fleet, told VOA.
“The number one
threat in the region continues to be North Korea, due to its reckless,
irresponsible, and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a
nuclear weapons capability," Benham said. The strike group includes its
namesake aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, as well as three guided-missile
destroyers.
Pyongyang's
reaction
Pyongyang has
repeatedly defied international warnings about conducting missile launches and
testing nuclear devices. On Sunday, a North Korean Foreign Ministry official
was quoted on state-run media as vowing to step up the country's defenses to
protect itself from airstrikes like the U.S. carried out against Syria last
week. The unidentified official told the
Korean Central New Agency the airstrikes were "absolutely
unpardonable," and proves Pyongyang is justified in having nuclear
weapons.
While Trump has
not set out a clear strategy for dealing with the isolated nation, he has
criticized the administration of former President Barack Obama for its policy
of “strategic patience,” in the face of North Korea’s ongoing efforts to
develop long-range nuclear strike capability. Trump has also called on China,
North Korea's strongest ally, to take stronger action to curb those nuclear
ambitions.
Unilateral
action?
Earlier this
month, Trump suggested the U.S. might take action unilaterally if China wasn’t
willing to do more. "If China is
not going to solve North Korea, we will," Trump told The Financial Times
on April 2. “China will either decide to help us with North Korea or they
won't. If they do, that will be very good for China, and if they don't, it
won't be good for anyone."
Tillerson said
that Xi, at his summit with Trump, signaled a willingness to do more to rein in
North Korea. "They have indicated that they will and I think we need to
allow them time to take actions," Tillerson said of China. VOA Pentagon
correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.