Trump Keeps Pressure on North Korea as Force Remains an Option

Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said it’s not “inevitable” that the U.S. will wind up in a war with North Korea over its continued development of nuclear weapons, but that military action remains an option.

“Nothing’s inevitable,” Trump said in a news conference on Thursday at the White House with the emir of Kuwait, Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah. “I would prefer not going the route of the military, but it is something certainly that could happen.”

He declined to say whether he’d accept a nuclear-armed North Korea that can be successfully deterred from using them.

The Trump administration is seeking to ratchet up pressure on North Korea after the country tested what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb on Sunday, following several successful tests of ballistic missiles with intercontinental range.

“North Korea is behaving very badly and it’s got to stop,” Trump said.

The U.S. is circulating a draft resolution at the United Nations that would bar crude oil shipments to North Korea, ban the nation’s exports of textiles and prohibit employment of its guest workers by other countries, according to a diplomat at the world body. The proposal also calls for freezing the assets of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But China and Russia, both of which have veto power in the Security Council, have indicated resistance to imposing more sanctions on North Korea.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke for 45 minutes Wednesday as the U.S. president seeks China’s help in putting pressure on Pyongyang. While both sides released statements agreeing on the goal of eliminated nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, there was no mention of next steps.

Top Trump administration officials including Defense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford briefed Congress on Wednesday about the crisis and the administration’s approach.

--With assistance from Kanga Kong and Kambiz Foroohar