Tensions Escalate on the Korean Peninsula

Tensions Escalate on the Korean Peninsula
President Donald Trump will push the case for tightening the global economic isolation of North Korea at next week’s U.N. General Assembly meeting, according to two senior officials who say he will argue that the failure of diplomacy increases the likelihood of war.
At a White House briefing Friday, Washington’s U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster welcomed the Security Council’s move this month to place additional sanctions on
No rth Korea, but said Pyongyang’s belligerent behavior is continuing.
McMaster said global support for diplomacy backed by rigorous enforcement of sanctions is needed to avoid what he called “the military option.”
North Korea fired a missile Friday over Japan, its second launch over the country since Trump threatened in August to unleash “fire and fury” against Pyongyang if acts of aggression continued. The latest launch has further raised alarm globally over North Korea’s developing nuclear and missile programs.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the U.S. has not yet shot down any North Korean missiles because they have not posed a threat to the United States or its allies.
In remarks to reporters at the Pentagon, Mattis said Monday that if the missiles were perceived as a threat, "that would elicit a different response from us.'' Asked what that response is likely to be, Mattis refused to give any details.
Almost a dozen U.S., Japanese and South Korean warplanes armed with live weapons flew over the Korean Peninsula on Monday, in what the
U.S. military is describing as a "show of force" in response to North Korea's latest launch.
The U.S. Defense Department said the planes flew over the Korean Peninsula and fired live weapons during a test.
The U.S. Pacific Com mand said the exercises support “the ability to respond to any threat in the Indo-Asian Pacific theater at a moment’s notice.”。