April 26 (UPI) — While U.S. senators said they heard nothing new Wednesday in a “sobering briefing” on North Korea, a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration said military preparations are underway.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told a group of reporters options for potential action against North Korea include “all elements of national power and multinational power … what you’ll see soon is using the economic dimension of national power as well as the military preparations that are underway.”
The official spoke about 100 yards from a closed-door briefing for senators from top administration officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said there no talk about a preemptive strike on North Korea during the hour-long update in a rare visit to the White House by the entire Senate.
The briefing offered few details — “nothing you couldn’t read in the newspaper,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.
Members of both parties said they were reassured about the administration’s handling of an increasingly tense standoff with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“It was a sobering briefing,” Coons said, “and an important opportunity for the entire Senate to hear the emerging plans of the Trump administration to confront what is a very real threat to our security.”
“It’s clear that they are going to take more steps, and steps to pressure China as well as others in the region, to get the results we need, which is peaceful denuclearization,” said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Trump, who extended the invitation at the request of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.), did not attend but briefly stopped by the closed-door meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on White House grounds.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.