US to keep increasing pressure on NK: White House

The United States will keep adding pressure on North Korea to get the communist regime to meet its international obligations, the White House said Thursday.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest spoke in response to a question about the suggestion from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that the best possible solution to the North Korean nuclear issue may be a cap on the regime's nuclear capabilities, not denuclearization.

"Just my understanding is that Director Clapper was making reference to the fact that he did not anticipate that the strategy we have now would prompt the North Koreans to give up their nuclear program before the president leaves office," Earnest said.

"Over the longer term, we're going to continue to work with the rest of the international community to apply additional pressure to the North Korean regime to get them to come into compliance with a range of international obligations including a variety of UN security council resolutions," he said.

Earnest also said that the US has scored some success in mobilizing pressure from countries around the world, including those "with whom we don't have the warmest of relations, including the Russians."

That "underscores the significant threat that emanates from North Korea and it's important for the United States to continue to play a leading role in mobilizing the international community to counter it," he said.

Clapper's remark, made Tuesday, spurred speculation the US might have given up on the North's denuclearization.

But the State Department immediately rejected the suggestion, saying denuclearization remains the US goal.

State Department spokesman John Kirby stressed the point again on Thursday.

"The question that was posed to me was, 'Is that US policy that ... we're going to give up on trying to achieve a verifiable denuclearization of the peninsula. And the answer is very simple: no, it's not," he said at a regular press briefing.

"And that's not just the State Department. It's not just one agency. It's the entire US government. Our policy is the same. We want to see a verifiable denuclearization on the peninsula," he said.

Clapper "offered a frank assessment" of the situation, but that doesn't mean that he was "denouncing or walking back or changing our policy objectives, which is that denuclearization," Kirby said.

On Wednesday, a ranking US House lawmaker has criticized Clapper for the suggestion.

"I was surprised to see the director say that. I have great respect for Director Clapper. I think he's a real straight shooter.

But this is not the policy of the administration. It's certainly not my view either," Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on CNN.

"I don't think that we can, in any way, suggest that the North Koreans, that their position on nuclear weapons is somehow inevitable and unchangeable. That, I think, would pose a real danger not only on the peninsula and to our allies, but it sends the message to other potential proliferators that, if you stick to your nuclear guns long enough, the rest of the world will just come to accept it," he said.

Clapper made the remark Tuesday, saying the North's denuclearization "is probably a lost cause" because the nuclear program is "their ticket to their survival." Clapper also said, "The best we could probably hope for is some sort of a cap."

Schiff said Clapper's suggestion is not the right view or policy.

"I think we need to put pressure, frankly, on China, maybe through the use of secondary sanctions, where we sanction financial institutions, including Chinese banks that continue to finance transactions with North Korea," the lawmaker said.

The US should also warn China that unless it reins in Pyongyang, the US will "have to increase our military and naval presence in the region; we're going to have to strengthen our missile defenses there, things the Chinese don't want to see but we will need to do to protect ourselves and our allies," he said.

On Thursday, a senior South Korean official also said that Clapper's suggestion has "some distance from the US policy."

"There is no change in the position of the US administration," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Denuclearization is, of course, their basic position and they also believe that imposing meaningful sanctions is the most effective way ... to get North Korea to return to the negotiating table." (Yonhap)