The United States is considering a number of operations to halt North Korea's nuclear program

The U.S. is considering a range of options, from expanded economic sanctions to military operations, as it reaches out to allies in confronting North Korea’s latest provocations, according to a senior Trump administration official.

North Korea’s ballistic missile test early Saturday was in “open defiance” of the international community, and the risk to the U.S. will not be tolerated, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said Sunday.

“We do have to do something” with partners in the region and globally “that involves enforcement of the UN sanctions that are in place,” McMaster said on the “Fox News Sunday” program. “It may mean ratcheting up those sanctions even further. And it also means being prepared for military operations, if necessary.”

North Korea’s latest missile test came hours after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson mounted an effort at the United Nations on Friday to rally pressure against Kim Jong Un’s regime. Trump has stepped up pressure to prevent Kim from obtaining the capability to hit North America with a nuclear
weapon, and he’s threatened to act unilaterally if China fails to do more to curb its neighbor’s activities. McMaster said Trump has been “masterful” in courting China, which accounts for the vast majority of trade with Pyongyang.

“We do see China starting to do something,” including in public statements and the Chinese press, he said. “But it is clear more needs to be done, and we’re going to ask China to do
more as we do more as our South Korean and Japanese allies but really all nations have to take a look at this regime.” Trump, in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” called the latest launch “a small missile” while declining to say whether he’d take military action if Kim conducts a nuclear test.

Meanwhile, Trump last week said he’d told South Korea it would be “appropriate” if they paid some $1 billion for the Thaad missile system designed to intercept any attack from North Korea, in contrary to an existing agreement that South Korea would provide land and facilities while the U.S. paid the cost
of operations.

Source: Bloomberg

Jr Trader Petar Milanov

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