The United States prefers a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis, a US special envoy stressed yesterday, countering speculation that a pre-emptive strike was its endgame.
US special representative for North Korea policy Joseph Yun told participants at a forum in Tokyo: "Again, I would like to caution that I don't believe we are close to (a military strike), and I think we want to have credible negotiations.
"But we also have said, and we've been very consistent, all options are on the table, and by all options, it has to include military options."
Mr Yun's statements came a day after Dr Victor Cha, a former White House official once tipped to become the next US envoy to South Korea, wrote a critical opinion piece in the Washington Post that the US' "all-options" pursuit had the goal of delivering a "bloody nose" to leader Kim Jong Un.
"Some may argue that US casualties and even a wider war on the Korean Peninsula are risks worth taking, given what is at stake," said Dr Cha, a professor at Georgetown University and senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. "But a strike (even a large one) would only delay North Korea's missile-building and nuclear programmes, which are buried in deep, unknown places impenetrable to bunker-busting bombs."
Mr Yun was among panellists at yesterday's one-day symposium in Tokyo on dealing with security threats in North-east Asia. The forum was jointly held by Japanese think tank Toda Peace Institute, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, and the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at New Zealand's University of Otago.
He said Washington's "peaceful pressure" policy involved "very strongly piling on pressure as well as leaving the door open for dialogue".
"Everybody wants to give diplomacy a good run," Mr Yun said, referring to ongoing talks between the two Koreas ahead of the Pyeongchang Winter Games in the South, which will begin on Feb 9.
But he cautioned that diplomacy is "not conducted by smoke signals", and said the North had to make a firm commitment to stop provocation in order for the US to agree to talks.
US President Donald Trump branded North Korea's leadership "depraved" in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. He said its nuclear weapons might "very soon threaten" the US mainland.
It was crucial to ensure all countries imposed sanctions on the North as fully as possible to maximise pressure, Mr Yun said.
The US and Japan have called on China time and again, as the North's main economic benefactor, to do more to tighten the noose, even as Beijing has already imposed sanctions on the trade of coal, iron ore, consumer goods and textiles.
Mr Yun said: "We believe China has implemented the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. But of course, in terms of sanctions, there are a number of things going on, including smuggling and trade that the authorities don't know about."
Further to that, fellow panellists Professor Shen Dingli of Fudan University in Shanghai, and Ms Yun Sun of the Stimson Centre in Washington, said China had not cut off oil completely nor resolved issues not agreed under the UNSC.
Ms Sun told the panel an impasse was likely. "It is a matter of regime legitimacy and national pride. With North Korea so close to achieving credible ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capability, for them to give it all up now seems improbable."
