BFF-02 Mattis wants to keep pressure on N. Korea

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SKOREA-NKOREA-US-DIPLOMACY-MILITARY

Mattis wants to keep pressure on N. Korea

HONOLULU, Jan 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The United States and South Korea are
going to keep tightening the screws on Pyongyang so that the hermit state
gives up its nuclear program, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Friday.

“As two peace-loving nations, the Republic of Korea and America welcome
the Olympic Games talks between the ROK and DPRK while at the same time
remaining steadfast with the international economic pressure campaign to
denuclearize the Korean peninsula,” Mattis said in Honolulu.

The defense secretary was speaking at the start of a meeting with his
South Korean counterpart Song Young-Moo at US Pacific Command, or PACOM,
headquarters.

“Diplomacy should repose reason on Kim’s reckless rhetoric and dangerous
provocations,” Mattis said, warning that the Winter Olympics talks and the
respite in inter-Korean ties that accompany them do not solve overarching
problems.

“The Kim regime is a threat to the entire world… Our response to this
threat remains diplomacy-led, backed up with military options available to
ensure that our diplomats are understood to be speaking from a position of
strength.”

Pyongyang has agreed to send athletes and support delegations to the South
for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next month and form a unified women’s
ice hockey team with the South.

The move followed months of entreaties from Seoul to take part in a “peace
Olympics,” prompting a rare and rapid improvement in the atmosphere on the
peninsula.

But the North is also preparing a massive military parade in Pyongyang on
February 8, a day before the Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony.

The North has long said it is open to talks without preconditions, but the
US says it must first take concrete steps towards denuclearization, although
the administration of President Donald Trump has at times sent mixed and
conflicting messages on the issue.

BSS/AFP/MRI/0820 hrs