WEB DESK

US Defence Secretary James Mattis has said, the United States is never out of diplomatic solutions in dealing with North Korea. Speaking at Pentagon, after meeting his South Korean counterpart, Song Young-moo, he said it is true that the US had lost hope in diplomacy, but America is never out of diplomatic solutions.

His comment comes after President Donald Trump tweeted that talking is not the answer to the country’s military ambitions.

Meanwhile, Russia has also warned the US against taking military action, saying it would be fraught with unpredictable consequences.

In a phone call yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that diplomacy was the only way to overcome tensions on the Korean peninsula, which have been escalating in recent months.

North Korea caused alarm by firing a missile over Japan on Tuesday. It said it was the first step of wider military operations in the Pacific, and repeated its threats to the US Pacific island of Guam.