President Donald Trump says the U.S. is about to unleash more punishing actions on Pyongyang.
Trump made the announcement Thursday as he sat down for string meetings at the United Nations. ‘We will be putting more sanctions on North Korea,’ he said.
Fox News reported that ‘banking-related’ sanctions would be announced Thursday afternoon. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has a press briefing scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at the United Nations.
The United States has acknowledged that it’s at the end of its rope when it comes to slapping international sanctions on Kim Jong-un’s rogue regime. Any further punishing actions will have to come from the U.S. and its allies directly.
Trump has said the U.S. could cut trade ties with any nation that does business with North Korea. It’s a warning Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has since repeated.
The U.S. president will take on a host of international conflicts on his final day at the United Nations in New York. None of them looms as large, perhaps, though as the dispute with North Korea over its illicit nuclear program.
Trump will hold bilateral meetings on Thursday with the leaders of Japan and South Korea, in addition to a trilateral, working lunch.
President Donald Trump will train his focus to a host of international conflicts on his final day at the United Nations in New York. None of them looms as large, perhaps, though as the dispute with North Korea over its illicit nuclear program
The U.S. president threatened ‘totally destroy’ Kim Jong-Un’s rogue regime if force becomes necessary in his first-ever speech to the UN earlier this week, leading to charges that Trump was warmongering from his critics.
His words were met with mockery from Pyongyang. The state-run news agency released a photo of Kim on an apple-picking trip. North Korea’s foreign minister told reporters that the nation would be intimidated by ‘the sound of a dog’s bark.’
H.R. McMaster, the president’s national security advisor, reinforced Trump’s position on the Today show Thursday.
McMaster said it would pose a ‘grave danger to the world if this kind of a rogue regime has a nuclear weapon’ and that the U.S. would retaliate if Kim launches ‘attacks on us or our allies.’
Vice President Mike Pence told CBS on Thursday morning that the U.S. remains hopeful that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can be achieved without war.
‘We have military options. But we earnestly desire a peaceable outcome,’ Pence asserted. ‘But all options are the table,’ he said, toeing the administration’s position.
Aside from Japan and South Korea, Trump will tackle meetings today with presidents of Afghanistan, Ukraine and Turkey before he departs New York for a weekend at his New Jersey golf club.
United States Secretary of Defense Jame Mattis announced the deployment of 3,000 additional troops to Afghanistan on Monday. That puts the total number of troops stationed there at roughly 14,000.
The deployment is part of the new plan for combating terrorism that Trump previewed last month in a national address on Afghanistan.
‘A core pillar of our new strategy is a shift from a time-based approach to one based on conditions,’ Trump said. ‘I’ve said it many times how counterproductive it is for the United States to announce in advance the dates we intend to begin, or end, military options. We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities.’
In the bilateral with Turkey, Trump is expected to address another terror-based war the U.S. is mired in – the one against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
He’s likely to discuss the regional dispute between Qatar and is neighbors with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as well. Turkey has taken Qatar’s side in the argument over Doha’s alleged financing of terrorism that Trump has offered to mediate.
With Trump hinting that he could exit a nuclear prevention agreement with Iran, tensions with that regime is also sure to come up in the president’s meeting with Erdoğan.
The deal must be re-certified by the Trump administration in the middle of October for the accord to continue.
Pence told CBS This Morning that ‘the president’s deeply concerned about this agreement…he’ll make his opinion on it known at the right time.
‘But, you know, at the end of the day we have to come together as a world community and demand that these rogue regimes including Iran stop the destabilizing effort, stop supporting terrorist activities. And the president is simply determined to do that,’ the VP said.
Trump’s conversation with Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko will include a discussion about Russia and its President Vladimir Putin. The U.S. has maintained sanctions on Moscow under Trump for the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The U.S. continues to sanction Russia for its interference in the 2016 election, too. Trump has repeatedly called Russia’s role in the meddling into doubt, even though four U.S. intelligence agencies have attributed disruptive activity to the Kremlin.