U.S. President Donald Trump has ruled out any diplomatic talks with North Korea over its missile programme saying “talking is not the answer” with a vow not to let North Korea develop nuclear missiles that can hit the mainland United States.
Trump, speaking after the missile launch by North Korea over Japan, took to his twitter handle @realDonaldTrump on Wednesday to stress that the U.S. has been talking for the past 25 years revealing that the United States had been in diplomatic talks with the country and paying them exotic money for the past years and now “talking was not the answer.
Trump was referring to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report which revealed that between 1995 and 2008, the United States provided North Korea with over $1.3 billion in assistance, slightly more than 50 percent was for food and about 40 percent for energy assistance. The assistance was part of a nuclear deal that North Korea later violated.
However, since early 2009, the United States has provided virtually no aid to North Korea, though periodically there have been discussions about resuming large-scale food aid.
North Korea said the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) on Tuesday was to counter U.S. and South Korean military drills and was a first step in military action in the Pacific to “contain” the U.S. island territory of Guam.
Its leader, Kim Jong Un, ordered the launch to be conducted for the first time from its capital, Pyongyang, and said more exercises with the Pacific as the target were needed,
However, the United Nations on Tuesday condemned as “outrageous” North Korea’s firing of the missile over Japan, demanding that the isolated country halt its weapons program but holding back on any threat of new sanctions.
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