Donald Trump summons entire Senate to
White House briefing on North Korea
Extraordinary step taken as
administration pressures UN security council for full force of existing
sanctions and further measures in event of nuclear test
Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday 25 April 2017 09.11 BST First published on Tuesday
25 April 2017 03.57 BST
The entire US Senate will go to the White House on Wednesday
to be briefed by senior administration officials about the brewing
confrontation with North Korea.
The unusual briefing underlines the urgency with which the
Trump administration is treating the threat posed by Pyongyang’s continuing
development of nuclear weapons and missile technology. It follows a lunch
meeting Trump held with ambassadors from UN member states on the security
council on Monday where he emphasised US resolve to stop North Korea’s
progress.
“The status quo in North Korea is unacceptable and the
council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on North
Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Trump said at the meeting.
“North Korea is a big world problem, and it’s a problem we have to finally
solve.”
On Friday the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is due
to chair a security council foreign ministers’ meeting on the issue in New
York, at which the state department said he would call once more for the full
implementation of existing UN sanctions or new measures in the event of further
nuclear or missile tests.
“This meeting will
give the security council the opportunity to discuss ways to maximise the
impact of existing security council measures and to show their resolve to
response further provocations with appropriate new measures,” said Mark Toner,
state department spokesman.
Senators are to be briefed by the defence secretary, James
Mattis, and Tillerson on Wednesday. Such briefings for the entire senate are
not unprecedented but it is very rare for them to take place in the White
House, which does not have large secure facilities for such classified sessions
as Congress.
Officials said the briefing would take place in the
auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which can be adapted
for such an event.
Michael Anton, a spokesman for the national security
council, said that although the Senate did have its own facilities, “the
president offered this to [Senate majority leader Mitch] McConnell as a gesture
and McConnell appreciated that so decided to do it here.”
“Keep in mind this is still a Senate meeting, not a White
House meeting,” Anton added.
Senate aides were unsure of the purpose of using the White
House as a venue, speculating it could be symbolic and intended to show Trump’s
seriousness or to showcase an assertive president as he approaches 100 days in
office.
The state department appeared unaware on Monday that
Tillerson would be delivering the briefing.
A sixth North Korean nuclear test has been anticipated for
some months now. Some observers speculated that it could be conducted on
Tuesday, on the anniversary of the founding of the North Korean armed forces,
but the morning came and went without one.
Instead, Pyongyang held major live-fire drills in an area
around its eastern coastal town of Wonsan, South Korea’s military said.
When the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, was asked what the
US would do if Pyongyang carried out a nuclear test, she told NBC news: “I
think then the president steps in and decides what’s going to happen.”
Haley said on Monday the US was not “looking for a fight”
with North Korea but warned Pyongyang should not “give us a reason” for one.
The US aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and its battlegroup are
due to arrive off the Korean peninsula after exercises with the Japanese navy.
An Ohio-class guided missile submarine, the USS Michigan, docked at the South
Korean naval base of Busan on Tuesday, the US navy reported, in what was
described as “a routine visit”.
North Korea’s state-run newspaper the Rodong Sinmun declared
the country’s armed forces were ready to show their strength by sinking the
carrier “with a single strike”.
Meanwhile the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has called for
calm in a phone call with Trump. China “hopes all parties involved will
exercise restraint and avoid doing anything to exacerbate the tense situation
on the peninsula”, he said according to a summary of the call released by
China’s foreign ministry.
In recent days Haley and other US officials have underlined
China’s helpfulness in seeking to increase pressure on the North Korean leader,
Kim Jong-un.
“Working with China for the first time — they have really
been our partner in trying to make sure that we hold him at bay, and I think
it’s a new day when you’ve got China and the United States working together on
a statement to condemn North Korea,” Haley said.
“They put pressure on him. He feels it. That’s why he’s
responding this way. And I think it is a different day.”
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