US military action against nuclear-armed Pyongyang is an “option on the table,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after visiting the Demilitarised Zone dividing the two Koreas. Diplomacy has failed, he warned.
The US’ “strategic patience” with nuclear-armed North Korea is over, Tillerson said in Seoul on Friday.
This signals a clean break from the position of the previous administration, when the US ruled out engaging the North until it made a tangible commitment to de-nuclearization.
“The policy of strategic patience has ended,” Tillerson said at a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-Se. “We are exploring a new range of diplomatic, security, economic measures. All options are on the table.”
Tillerson added that it may be necessary to take pre-emptive military action against North Korea if the threat from its weapons program reaches a level “that we believe requires action.” He didn’t say what that level could be.
“Certainly we do not want to, for things to get to military conflict,” he told reporters.
Tillerson arrived at the heavily fortified border with North Korea, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), on Friday. The US Secretary of State said that 20 years of diplomatic efforts in relation to North Korea had “come to nothing.”
He noted a period when the US provided North Korea with $1.35 billion (1.28 billion euros) in assistance “to take a different pathway,” adding that it had not worked.
Tillerson and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed this week that their two countries should share strategic goals to deal with Pyongyang’s growing nuclear missile threat.
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