Time to take action against N’Korea, Tillerson tells UN Security Council

The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told the United Nations Security Council that it is time to take action against defiant North Korea led by Kim Jong Un amid its continued missile activities.

Tillerson warned on Friday that failure to curb North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs could lead to ‘catastrophic consequences.

However, China and Russia has rebuked Washington’s threat of military force in a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on North Korea which highlighted the diplomatic challenges of resolving tensions over Pyongyang.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the 15-member council it was not only up to China to solve the North Korean problem.

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“The key to solving the nuclear issue on the peninsula does not lie in the hands of the Chinese side,” Wang told the council in blunt remarks that Tillerson later rebuffed.

US President Donald Trump has also warned that a major conflict with North Korea over its missile activities is possible but noted that he would like to see a diplomatic solution to the standoff.

“There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview on Thursday.

Nonetheless, Trump said he wanted to peacefully resolve a crisis that has bedeviled multiple US presidents, a path that he and his administration are emphasising by preparing a variety of new economic sanctions while not taking the military option off the table.

 

 

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