US will lead with diplomacy to mitigate threats from N. Korea: Austin

WASHINGTON -- The United States will continue to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula by reducing threats from North Korea through diplomacy, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday, amid a US overture to the North for dialogue.

The defense secretary also said his country will continue to remain focused on North Korea despite more pacing threats from others such as China.

"Leading with diplomacy, the United States will continue to work to mitigate North Korea's destabilizing and provocative behavior and maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Austin said in a written statement to the House Armed Services Committee for a hearing on the administration's fiscal year 2022 defense budget request.

Austin noted China and Russia pose the most pacing and immediate threat to the United States, but that North Korea too poses a serious threat to his country and its allies while also trying to further develop its ballistic missile capabilities.

"We also face challenges from North Korea, a country with the ambition to be capable of striking the US homeland," said the defense secretary.

He argued the proposed US$715 billion defense spending will help counter threats posed by the North and others.

"With its emphasis on space, missile defense, and more sophisticated sensors, our budget will also help us counter the increasing ballistic-missile capabilities of nations like North Korea and Iran," Austin said in his opening remarks at the hearing.

His remarks come after North Korea ruled out the possibility of its return to the dialogue table with the US in the near future despite repeated US overtures.

Sung Kim, US special envoy for North Korea, said this week that Washington is ready to meet with Pyongyang "anywhere, anytime without preconditions."

Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, earlier said the US' hope for dialogue will lead to a greater disappointment. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon said Wednesday (Seoul time) that his country is not "considering even the possibility of any contact with the US" (Yonhap)