US finalizes plan to deal with North Korea

The administration of US President Donald Trump has just finalized its policy on North Korea, focusing on 'maximum pressure and commitment' to work towards denuclearization of the country.

The AP news agency on April 14 quoted an anonymous US official as saying that the current focus of the new policy is to increase pressure on North Korea with the help of China.

The US will focus on denuclearization on the Korean peninsula (Illustration photo: Daily Express)

“Commitment” is also an option, but the goal of a commitment is denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, not an arms control or reduction agreement because this would mean the US accepting North Korea as a nuclear power.

The Trump administration finalized the policy after a two-month review in which Trump's advisers considered a range of ideas on how to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, including military options and overthrowing the isolated country, according to AP.

US officials are also considering accepting North Korea as a nuclear state.

Details are still scarce, but the Trump administration's new policy is not much different from the "strategic patience" policy of his predecessor Barack Obama, which focused on

However, the US will put more pressure on China to act on Pyongyang, reflecting the reality that beyond imposing tougher sanctions and bolstering deterrence and defence, there is little the US can do with North Korea without risking war.

The new US policy comes as tensions escalate on the Korean peninsula amid concerns that Pyongyang will conduct a sixth nuclear test on April 15 to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un.

Previously, the US sent an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson off the Korean peninsula to deal with threats from Pyongyang.

A U.S. military official told the Associated Press that the United States has no intention of using military force against North Korea in response to a nuclear test or missile launch. The official said plans could change in the event a North Korean missile hits South Korea, Japan or U.S. territory, according to the AP.

According to Vietnamnet