WEB DESK /
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Washington would not rule out a military response to future North Korean aggression and that it would seek to increase the rogue nation’s financial and international isolation.
Tillerson told yesterday at a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council on the North Korean nuclear issue. As we have said before, all options for responding to future provocation must remain on the table, he added. Tillerson said this new campaign of intensified pressure would be swiftly implemented and painful to North Korean interests, but he insisted that regime change is not a part of it. He added that talks would not happen before North Korea takes concrete steps to dismantle its illegal weapons programs.
He singled out China, urging it to exert its powerful economic leverage over North Korea. He also asked States to downgrade their diplomatic relations with Pyongyang and to fully implement existing UN Security Council resolutions regarding North Korea. Several foreign ministers attended Friday’s high-level session, including China’s Wang Yi.