“To cut back the dangers of escalation, we reached out to the North Korean authorities by a number of channels beginning in mid-February, together with in New York,” the official mentioned. “Up to now, we’ve not acquired any response from Pyongyang. This follows over a 12 months with out lively dialogue with North Korea, regardless of a number of makes an attempt by the US to have interaction.”
The official didn’t present additional particulars of what the outreach entailed however famous the administration has been conducting its interagency evaluation of america’ coverage in direction of North Korea, “together with analysis of all accessible choices to handle the growing risk posed by North Korea to its neighbors and the broader worldwide group.”
Throughout the evaluation course of, the administration has consulted with former authorities officers with expertise in North Korea coverage, together with some officers from the Trump administration, the official mentioned. The US has additionally been in contact with allies from Japan and South Korea.
“We stay up for finishing our intensive, multi-stakeholder coverage evaluation within the coming weeks,” the official mentioned.
Satellite tv for pc imagery obtained by CNN reveals North Korea has not too long ago taken steps to hide a facility that US intelligence businesses imagine is getting used to retailer nuclear weapons.