The denuclearization negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea have been stalled since the Hanoi summit in February,... but America's top officials have been echoing in one voice that diplomacy is the key to their primary objective: the denuclearization of North Korea.
However, the U.S. military continues to generate readiness in case diplomacy fails.
Kim Hyo-sun starts us off.
Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan pointed to diplomacy as the primary way to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
In his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee on Wednesday,... Shanahan added the Pentagon continues to generate readiness in case diplomacy fails.
He also stressed the North's denuclearization is his department's most pressing goal,... which reaffirms that the Pentagon will continue to support dialogue between Pyeongyang and Washington.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has reiterated that Washington is ready to resume dialogue with the North,... adding he's hopeful about the regime's denuclearization process.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday,... the top U.S. diplomat said there's only one real approach to denuclearization,... and that is to do it right, and to begin to reduce the threat.
Such remarks come as the North's Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui called on Washington late last month to change its current way of calculation and re-establish its stance.
In the aftermath of the Hanoi summit in late February,... Pyeongyang has criticized top American officials including Pompeo through its state media,... blaming them for leading talks into a dead end.
Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.