The White House said Sunday it would consider “ other tools ” beyond personal diplomacy if North Korea went ahead with a threatened “ Christmas gift ” that could reignite global tensions over its nuclear program.

Experts have interpreted the message delivered earlier this month by Pyongyang as a warning that a long -range missile test was imminent if the US did not give ground by the end of the year in negotiations to denuclearize the Korean peninsula .

Asked by ABC about possible consequences of such a test , White House national security advisor Robert O ’ Brien said he did not want to speculate .

“ But we have a lot of tools in our toolkit , and additional pressure can be brought to bear on the North Koreans , ” he said.
O ’ Brien said North Korea’ s nuclear program was the “ most difficult challenge in the world ” when President Donald Trump took office in January 2017 .

The aide suggested that Trump ’ s strategy of face -to -face diplomacy may have forced North Korean leader Kim Jong Un into a rethink .

“ So perhaps he ’ s reconsidered that . But we ’ ll have to wait and see, ” O ’ Brien said . “ We ’ re going to monitor it closely . It ’ s a situation that concerns us , of course . ”

Talks on denuclearization have been largely deadlocked since a second summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi collapsed at the start of this year.

Pyongyang has issued a series of increasingly assertive comments as its time limit approaches .
It has carried out a series of static tests at its Sohae rocket facility this month, after a number of weapons launches in recent weeks .

“ We ’ ll find out what the surprise is and we ’ ll deal with it very successfully , ” Trump told reporters at his Mar- a -Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday.

“ Everybody ’ s got surprises for me , but let ’ s see what happens . I handle them as they come along. ”

“ Maybe it ’ s a nice present, maybe it ’ s a present where he sends me a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test , ” the president joked.

Source:- Punchng.

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