Sanctions on North Korea have been tried, and failed. Serious negotiations seem like a pipedream. And any military strike would almost surely bring mass devastation and horrific civilian casualties. The Trump administration’s options are going from bad to worse as Kim Jong Un’s military marches ever closer to being able to strike the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons. Just as President Donald Trump seeks to show global resolve after the North’s most powerful nuclear test, his leverage is limited even further by new tensions he’s stoked with South Korea, plus continued opposition from China and Russia. With South Korea, the country most directly threatened, Trump has taken the unusual step of highlighting disagreements between the U.S. and its treaty ally, including by floating the possibility he could pull out of a trade deal with South Korea to protest trade imbalances. He also suggested on Twitter the two countries lacked unanimity on North Korea, faulting new South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has been more conciliatory to the North, for his government’s ”talk of appeasement.”

It’s an inopportune time for grievances to be aired, and on Monday the two leaders sought to show they were confronting North Korea together – and with might. The White House said that in a phone call with Moon, Trump gave approval ”in principle” to lifting restrictions on South Korean missile payloads and to approving ”many billions” in weapons sales to South Korea. Though no details were released, the idea was to show the countries were collaborating to bolster defenses against Kim’s government. ”He is begging for war,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said of the North Korean leader Monday at the U.N. Security Council, where diplomats were called into emergency session despite the Labor Day holiday in the U.S.

Haley called for exhausting ”all diplomatic means to end this crisis.” But to those who tried and failed over a decade-plus to resolve it, there appear to be few such means that haven’t already been tried – and tried again. What has changed is the sense of urgency, and the growing view among national security analysts that it may be time to abandon ”denuclearization” and accept North Korea into the nuclear club. The North claimed Sunday’s test, its sixth since 2006, was a hydrogen bomb designed to be mounted on its new intercontinental ballistic missiles. Short of allowing Pyongyang’s weapons programs to advance, Trump’s options all appear to be variations on what’s been considered before:

The U.S. military for years has had a full range of contingency plans prepared for potential strikes on the North to try to disrupt its nuclear program or dissuade it from developing further. On Sunday, Trump dispatched Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to warn of a ”massive military response” if the North keeps threatening the U.S., while Trump hinted in a call with Japan’s leader that the U.S. could even deploy its own nuclear arsenal. But over the years, the military options have consistently been viewed as unworkable, owing to the sheer horror that would ensue if North Korea retaliated – as would be expected – by striking South Korea. The North Koreans have massive military assets stockpiled on what is the world’s most heavily fortified border. The U.S. has roughly 28,000 troops in South Korea, and there are hundreds of thousands more American citizens just in Seoul, the capital, with a metro area population of 25 million. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said if war broke out, there would be heavy civilian casualties in the first few days before the U.S. could mitigate the North’s ability to strike Seoul.

Trump on Saturday declared on Twitter that the U.S. was considering ”stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.” That would be a dramatic escalation of the longstanding U.S. strategy: increasing economic pressure on North Korea by restricting its access to funds needed for its weapons programs. But many countries do business with North Korea – especially China, a top U.S. trading partner and economic behemoth. Cutting off trade with China, not to mention the others, would devastate the U.S. economy and be incredibly difficult to enforce. Countless American businesses would be shuttered or hard hit, eliminating jobs along with them.

A total trade shutdown aside, the U.S. has worked for years to squeeze Pyongyang financially and encouraged others to do the same – especially China. In a diplomatic victory for the Trump administration, the U.N. last month approved sweeping new sanctions targeting roughly one-third of the North’s economy, with China’s support. But the latest nuclear test and recent missile tests suggest Kim is undeterred by those sanctions. And there’s strong reluctance from countries including China and Russia, both permanent Security Council members, to do more sanctioning. Advocates for more sanctions say there’s still room to up the pressure. Anthony Ruggiero, a sanctions expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the next logical step is for the U.S. to impose ”secondary sanctions” targeting banks or businesses in China that do business with North Korea, a tactic the U.S. used effectively to push Iran to the table over its nuclear program several years ago. ”The chance for sanctions to work is that playbook,” Ruggiero said.

China, backed by Russia, has been urging an immediate return to talks, predicated on the U.S. halting joint military exercises with South Korea and the North suspending its weapons development. But few in the U.S. government have advocated direct talks with the North Koreans until their behavior significantly changes. In the past, talks with the North have failed to prevent it from advancing its weapons program for long, and the U.S. has accused Pyongyang of cheating on an earlier agreement. The Trump administration has left the door open to talks with the North, and has tried to coax Kim into abstaining from provocative tests long enough to justify a U.S. return to the table. So far, that coaxing hasn’t worked.</s></s>A top North Korean diplomat on Tuesday warned that his country is ready to send “more gift packages” to the United States as world powers struggled for a response to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear weapons test.

Han Tae Song, ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, confirmed that North Korea had successfully conducted its sixth and largest nuclear bomb test on Sunday.

”The recent self-defense measures by my country, DPRK, are a

gift package addressed to none other than the U.S.,” Han told a disarmament conference, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s formal name.

“The U.S. will receive more ‘gift packages’ ... as long as it relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK,” he added without elaborating.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday accused North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of “begging for war” with a series of nuclear bomb and missile tests, and urged the 15-member Security Council to impose the “strongest possible” sanctions to deter him and shut down his trading partners.

But Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Tuesday a U.S. bid for the Security Council to vote on Sept. 11 on new sanctions is “a little premature.” Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and wields veto power.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to rush it so fast,” Nebenzia told reporters. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Tuesday said imposing more sanctions was a “road to nowhere.”

U.S. stocks sank, with the S&P 500 stumbling to its biggest single-day loss in about three weeks, as investors weighed the increasing tensions with North Korea.

Sanctions have done little to stop North Korea boosting its nuclear and missile capacity as it faces off with U.S. President Donald Trump who has vowed to stop Pyongyang from being able to hit the mainland United States with a nuclear weapon.

Haley acknowledged on Tuesday that further sanctions on North Korea are unlikely to change its behavior but would cut off funding for its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

“Do we think more sanctions are going to work on North Korea? Not necessarily,” she told the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington. “But what does it do? It cuts off the revenue that allows them to build ballistic missiles.”

MORE SANCTIONS?

North Korea said it tested an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile on Sunday, marking a major step in its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile that puts the U.S. mainland within range.

Satellite imagery appears to show the blast caused numerous landslides at North Korea’s Punggye-ri test site, according to 38 North, a Washington-based North Korean monitoring project.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday Trump continues to see denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as the priority in how it responds to the latest nuclear weapons test.

Sanders said “all options are on the table,” including diplomatic and economic measures, but said talks with Pyongyang were not the current focus for the White House.

Diplomats have said the Security Council could consider banning North Korean textile exports, barring its airline and stopping supplies of oil to the government and military.

Other measures could include preventing North Koreans from working abroad and adding top officials to a blacklist aiming at imposing asset freezes and travel bans.

China accounted for 92 percent of North Korea’s trade in 2016, according to South Korea. China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it would take part in Security Council discussions in “a responsible and constructive manner”.

Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed in a telephone call on Tuesday that China must do more to persuade North Korea to cease its missile tests, a spokesman for May said.

South Korea said an agreement with the United States to scrap a weight limit on Seoul’s warheads would help it respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat.

U.S. lawmakers and America’s biggest business lobby urged Trump not to scrap a free trade agreement with longstanding ally South Korea, especially at a time of heightened tensions.

Analysts and South Korean policymakers believe North Korea may test another weapon on or around Sept. 9, its founding day.

North Korea says it needs to develop its weapons to defend itself against what it sees as U.S. aggression.



South Korea, after weeks of rising tension, is talking to the United States about deploying aircraft carriers and strategic bombers to the Korean peninsula, and has been ramping up its own defenses.

Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, agreed on Monday to scrap the warhead weight limit on South Korea’s missiles, South Korea’s presidential office said, enabling it to strike North Korea with greater force in the event of war.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

Each side has thousands of rockets and artillery pieces aimed at the other across the world’s most heavily armed border.</s>Washington/Hong Kong: North Korea said the US will “pay dearly” after its United Nations (UN) ambassador Nikki Haley said the isolated nation was “begging for war,” again ratcheting up tensions as world leaders consider a fresh round of sanctions.

Describing Haley’s comments to the UN this week as a “hysteric fit,” a commentary in the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Friday warned the US of unspecified retribution. North Korea detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb on Sunday, and South Korea has said Kim Jong Un’s regime may be planning to launch another intercontinental ballistic missile on Saturday.

“The US administration will have to pay a dear price for her tongue-lashing,” KCNA said of Haley’s remarks.

US President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing the UN Security Council to ban oil sales to North Korea in a fresh bid to pressure Kim. The North Korean leader is seeking the capability to strike the US with a nuclear weapon, and has said he won’t negotiate unless Washington drops its “hostile” policies.

On Thursday, Trump said it wasn’t inevitable that the US would end up in a war with North Korea over its nuclear weapons development, but that military action remained an option.

“I would prefer not going the route of the military, but it is something certainly that could happen,” Trump said in a press conference at the White House.

He declined to say whether he’d accept a nuclear-armed North Korea that can be successfully deterred from using atomic weapons. A senior administration official later told reporters that the US will not allow North Korea to extort or threaten the world with its nuclear program, and that the administration is not sure the country can be deterred.

The official said that the danger of war is rising, and that the US is also concerned about North Korea exporting its nuclear technology to other nations or to terror groups. Any threat to the US or its allies will be met with a massive military response, the official said.

“North Korea is behaving very badly and it’s got to stop,” Trump said.

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon on Thursday fuelled speculation of an imminent launch, saying that North Korea may fire its next missile on Saturday—the anniversary of its founding.

An analysis published on Thursday by NK Pro points to little correlation between key dates in the country and its testing cycle. NK Pro is a US subscription-based website that provides analysis on North Korea.

The US is circulating a draft resolution at the UN that would bar crude oil shipments to North Korea, ban the nation’s exports of textiles and prohibit employment of its guest workers by other countries, according to a diplomat at the world body. The proposal also calls for freezing the assets of the North Korean leader. But China and Russia, both of which have veto power in the Security Council, have indicated resistance to imposing more sanctions.

The US is willing to risk a veto of its proposal rather than see it get watered down, according to a UN Security Council diplomat who asked not to be identified because negotiations continue. The US has called for the council to take up its resolution on 11 September.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke for 45 minutes on Wednesday as the US president seeks China’s help in putting pressure on Pyongyang. While both sides released statements agreeing on the goal of eliminated nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, there was no mention of next steps.

Top Trump administration officials including defence secretary James Mattis, secretary of state Rex Tillerson and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Joseph Dunford briefed Congress on Wednesday about the crisis and the administration’s approach. Bloomberg

Kanga Kong and Kambiz Foroohar contributed to this story.</s>The hermit state has previously marked key dates with displays of military power

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NORTH Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un might launch another missile TOMORROW to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the brutal regime.

South Korea fears the dictator may launch another intercontinental ballistic missile when it celebrates the milestone tomorrow.

Seoul's Unification Ministry spokeswoman Eugene Lee said Friday that Pyongyang could potentially conduct its next missile tests this weekend or around October 10 - another North Korean holiday marking the founding of its ruling party.

North Korea has previously marked key dates with displays of military power, but now its tests appear to be driven by the need to improve missile capabilities.

The North held its sixth and the most powerful nuclear test to date on Sunday in what it claimed was a detonation of a thermonuclear weapon built for its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).

The country tested its developmental Hwasong-14 ICBMs twice in July and analysts say the flight data from the launches indicate the missiles could hit the US, including major cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago.

US President Donald Trump said yesterday that military action is "certainly" an option against North Korea and a senior administration official said America was still assessing last weekend's underground explosion.

"Military action would certainly be an option," Trump told a White House news conference. "I would prefer not going the route of the military, but it's something certainly that could happen."

Pressed on whether he could accept a scenario in which the isolated nation had nukes but was "contained and deterred," Trump demurred. "I don't put my negotiations on the table, unlike past administrations. I don't talk about them. But I can tell you North Korea is behaving badly and it's got to stop," he said.

Last month North Korea fired a powerful new intermediate range missile, the Hwasong-12, over northern Japan.

Kim called the launch a "meaningful prelude" to containing the US Pacific island territory of Guam and called for his military to conduct more ballistic missile launches targeting the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, Sweden today urged its citizens to refrain from unnecessary trips to North Korea.

The announcement by the Swedish Foreign Affairs Ministry came hours after Mexico's government ordered North Korean Ambassador Kim Hyong Gil to leave the country within 72 hours in response to Sunday's nuke test.

The United States has already banned Americans from travelling to North Korea following the death of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old college student from Ohio who was released from North Korea in June in a coma after being detained there for more than a year.

Sweden has had diplomatic relations with North Korea since 1973.

The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang also provides consular services for the United States, Australia and Canada.

And today French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed North Korea in a phone call.

Macron called for more pressure on North Korea to bring the country back to the negotiating table, and China's official Xinhua News Agency described Xi as being "adamant" about denuclearisation while also expressing hope that France would play "a constructive role in easing the situation and restarting dialogue."

South Korean experts say that the launch was Pyongyang's attempt to make missiles flying over Japan an accepted norm as it seeks to test new projectiles in conditions close to operational and win more military space in a region dominated by enemies.

Kim has conducted four of North Korea's six nuclear tests since taking power in 2011.

His military has ramped up weapon tests, which includes solid-fuel missiles built to be fired from road mobile launchers or submarines.

In accelerating his pursuit of nuclear weapons targeting the United States and allies South Korea and Japan, Kim appears to be seeking a nuclear deterrent to help ensure the survival of his government.

Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have been pushing for stronger sanctions to punish Pyongyang over its nuclear activities, such as denying the country oil supplies. China and Russia have been calling for talks, saying sanctions aren't working against North Korea.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368</s>North Korea has promised to send more "gift packages" to the US after its latest nuclear test raised fresh tensions in the Korean peninsula. Refusing to scale down any of its weapons programme, the North said it is determined to press on with improving its nuclear and missile arsenal.

The hermit kingdom of North Korea conducted a major nuclear test, the country's sixth and most powerful detonation, on Sunday, 3 September. This had left global powers scrambling to condemn the provocative act, with the UN Security Council choosing harsh words to criticise the North.

Responding to condemnation pouring in from across the world, including from its key economic partner and geopolitical ally, China, Pyongyang has made it clear it has no intention of backing off from any of its activities.

"I am proud of saying that just two days ago on the 3rd of September, DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea — North Korea's official name] successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test for intercontinental ballistic rocket under its plan for building a strategic nuclear force," Han Tae-song, Pyongyang's envoy to the UN in Geneva, told a UN-sponsored gathering.

"The recent self-defence measures by my country, DPRK, are a gift package addressed to none other than the US. The US will receive more gift packages from my country as long as it relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK," added Han hinting that more missile tests could be carried out in the near future.

According to UN regulations, the North is prohibited from conducting ballistic missile tests and nuclear detonations but the reclusive regime has been continuously defying those global calls. While the US has called for the UN Security Council to vote on fresh sanctions on 11 September, Russia, which has veto power, said it was "a little premature" to come up with such punitive measures.

Amid all these tensions in the region, US President Donald Trump has also allowed South Korea and Japan — both key partners of the US under immediate threat from North Korean weapons — to purchase more "highly sophisticated" military equipment from the US.</s>Seoul: Resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis is impossible with sanctions and pressure alone, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday after meeting his South Korean counterpart, adding that the impact of cutting oil would be worrying.

Putin met South Korea`s Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of an economic summit in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok amid mounting international concern that their neighbour plans more weapons tests, possibly a long-range missile launch ahead of a weekend anniversary.

Putin denounced North Korea`s sixth and largest nuclear bomb test on Sunday, saying Russia did not recognise its nuclear status.

"Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programme is a crude violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, undermines the non-proliferation regime and creates a threat to the security of northeastern Asia," Putin said at a joint news conference.

"At the same time, it is clear that it is impossible to resolve the problem of the Korean peninsula only by sanctions and pressure," he said.

No headway could be made without political and diplomatic tools, Putin said, later telling the TASS news agency that Russian and North Korean delegations might meet at the Vladivostok forum.

 Moon, who came to power this year advocating a policy of pursuing engagement with North Korea, has come under increasing pressure to take a harder line.

He has asked the United Nations to consider tough new sanctions after North Korea`s latest nuclear test.

Diplomats say the U.N. Security Council could consider banning North Korean textile exports, barring its airline or stopping supplies of oil to the government and military.

Other measures could include preventing North Koreans from working abroad and putting top officials on a blacklist aimed at imposing asset freezes and travel bans.

"I ask Russia to actively cooperate as this time it is inevitable that North Korea`s oil supply should be cut at the least," Moon told Putin, according to a readout from a South Korean official.

 Putin said North Korea would not give up its nuclear programme no matter how tough the sanctions.

"We too, are against North Korea developing its nuclear capabilities and condemn it, but it is worrying cutting the oil pipeline will harm the regular people, like in hospitals," Putin said, according to the South Korean presidential official.

Russia`s exports of crude oil to North Korea were tiny at about 40,000 tonnes a year, Putin said. By comparison, China provides it with about 520,000 tonnes of crude a year, according to industry sources.

Last year, China shipped just over 96,000 tonnes of gasoline and almost 45,000 tonnes of diesel to North Korea, where it is used across the economy, from fishermen and farmers to truckers and the military.

Sanctions have done little to stop North Korea boosting its nuclear and missile capacity as it faces off with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has vowed to stop it from being able to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear weapon.

China and Russia have advocated a "freeze for freeze" plan, where the United States and South Korea stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programmes, but neither side is willing to budge.

North Korea says it needs to develop its weapons to defend itself against what it sees as U.S. aggression.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

China objects to both the military drills and the deployment in South Korea of an advanced U.S. missile defence system that has a radar that can see deep into Chinese territory.

South Korea`s Defence Ministry said the four remaining batteries of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would be deployed on a golf course in the south of the country on Thursday.

Two THAAD batteries have already been installed.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated China`s opposition to the system, saying it could only "severely damage" regional security and raise "tensions and antagonism".

"China strongly urges the United States and South Korea to pay attention to China and other regional nations` security interests and concerns, immediately halt the progress of the relevant deployment, and remove the relevant equipment," Geng said.

Asian stocks fell on Wednesday after a slide on Wall Street overnight while the dollar was on the defensive with Korean tension showing few signs of abating.

Sunday`s test of what North Korea said was an advanced hydrogen bomb was its largest by far.

Japan upgraded its assessment of the North Korean test to 160 kilotons from 120 kilotons after the size of the earthquake it generated was revised to magnitude 6.1.

 "We estimate this was far bigger than previous nuclear tests," Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters.

Satellite imagery appeared to show the blast caused landslides at North Korea`s Punggye-ri test site, according to 38 North, a Washington-based North Korean monitoring project.

 South Korean officials said they were watching for radioactive fallout from the test and for signs of preparations for more activity.

British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said on Wednesday China held the key to resolving the crisis, reiterating comments made by Prime Minister Theresa May and Australian leader Malcolm Turnbull after they spoke with Trump.

"China holds the key, the oil to North Korea flows from China ... China has not just influence but has many of the levers that are needed to change behaviour in North Korea," Fallon told BBC radio.</s>North Korea held a mass celebration for the scientists involved in carrying out its largest nuclear blast to date, with fireworks and a mass rally in Pyongyang.

Citizens of the capital lined the streets Wednesday to wave pink and purple pom-poms and cheer a convoy of buses carrying the specialists into the city, and toss confetti over them as they walked into Kim Il-Sung Square.

"We offer the greatest honour to Comrade Kim Jong-Un, the Supreme Leader who brought us the greatest achievement in the history of the Korean people," read one banner in the plaza, where tens of thousands of people were gathered.

Another, with a picture of a missile on a caterpillar-tracked transporter, proclaimed: "No-one can stop us on our road to the future."

The blast triggered global condemnation and calls by the US, South Korea, Japan and others for stronger United Nations Security Council sanctions against the North.

The official Korean Central News Agency described it as a "successful ICBM-ready H-bomb test".

Speakers at the rally said the North's military "will put an end to the destiny of the gangster-like US imperialists through the most merciless and strongest preemptive strikes if they and the hordes of traitors finally ignite a war", KCNA reported.

Sunday's blast was the North's sixth nuclear detonation and by far its biggest to date.

Hydrogen bombs, or H-bombs, are thermonuclear weapons far more powerful than ordinary fission-based atomic bombs, and use a nuclear blast to generate the intense temperatures required for fusion to take place.

Foreign governments have yet to confirm whether Sunday's blast was a full two-stage thermonuclear weapon, or an enhanced fission device.

Working out its size depends on factors including the magnitude of the earthquake generated, the depth at which it was buried, and the type of rock surrounding it.

Estimates vary from South Korea's 50 kilotons to Japan's 160. But all of them are far larger than the 15-kiloton US bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.

North Korea in July carried out its first two successful tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), apparently bringing much of the US mainland into range.

Seoul and Washington early Thursday deployed four more launchers in the South for the THAAD missile defence system, whose presence has infuriated Beijing.

The move was part of measures to defend the South from the North, Seoul's defence ministry said.</s>A North Korean flag is pictured at its embassy in Beijing January 6, 2016. North Korea said it had successfully conducted a test of a miniaturised hydrogen nuclear device on Wednesday morning. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s intelligence agency said a device North Korea tested on Wednesday may not have been a hydrogen nuclear bomb, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

South Korea’s meteorological agency said separately that it had not detected any radiation after North Korea said it successfully conducted a hydrogen nuclear test.</s>South Korean protesters clashed with thousands of police over the deployment of a defence system aimed at countering North Korean missile attacks, while China and the United States discussed options to rein in Pyongyang.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would prefer not to use military action against North Korea to counter its nuclear and missile threat but that if he did it would be a “very sad day” for the leadership in Pyongyang.

Trump again pointedly declined to rule out a U.S. military response following North Korea’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test as his administration seeks increased economic sanctions, saying Pyongyang was “behaving badly and it's got to stop.”

"Military action would certainly be an option. Is it inevitable? Nothing is inevitable," Trump said during a news conference.

I would prefer not going the route of the military," Trump said. "If we do use it on North Korea, it will be a very sad day for North Korea."

Even as Trump has insisted that now is not the time to talk to North Korea, senior members of his administration have made clear that the door to a diplomatic solution remains open, especially given the U.S. assessment that any pre-emptive strike would unleash massive North Korean retaliation.

While Trump talked tough on North Korea, China agreed on Thursday that the United Nations should take more action against Pyongyang but also kept pushing for dialogue to help resolve the standoff.

North Korea, which is pursuing its nuclear and missile program in defiance of international condemnation, said it would respond to any new U.N. sanctions and U.S. pressure with "powerful counter measures", accusing the United States of aiming for war.

The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean labourers abroad, and to subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Pressure from Washington has ratcheted up since North Korea conducted its nuclear test on Sunday. That test, along with a series of missile launches, showed it was close to achieving its goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon that could reach the United States.

"Given the new developments on the Korean peninsula, China agrees that the U.N. Security Council should make a further response and take necessary measures," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters.

"Any new actions taken by the international community against the DPRK should serve the purpose of curbing the DPRK's nuclear and missile programmes, while at the same time be conducive to restarting dialogue and consultation," he said, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

China is by far North Korea's biggest trading partner, accounting for 92 percent of two-way trade last year. It also provides hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil and fuel to the impoverished regime.

Trump has urged China to do more to rein in its neighbour, which was typically defiant on Thursday.

"We will respond to the barbaric plotting around sanctions and pressure by the United States with powerful counter measures of our own," North Korea said in a statement by its delegation to an economic forum in Vladivostok, in Russia's Far East.

A U.N. Security Council diplomat said the U.S. draft was "the 'cutting room floor' resolution, it's everything" and that Russia had questioned what leverage it would leave the Security Council if North Korea continued to conduct nuclear and ballistic missile testing.

"Russia and China are not on board with the content of the resolution," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The United States has said it wants the draft resolution to be voted on Monday.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in spoke in Vladivostok and agreed to try to persuade China and Russia to cut off oil to North Korea as much as possible, according to South Korean officials.

North Korea says it needs its weapons to protect itself from U.S. aggression. South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

While successive U.S. administrations have insisted they will never recognise North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, Trump declined to answer a question on Thursday on whether he would accept a situation where Pyongyang would be deterred and contained from using its nuclear arsenal, saying he did not want to disclose his negotiating strategy.

A senior U.S. official said afterwards it was unclear whether the Cold War-era deterrence model that Washington used with the Soviet Union could be applied to a rogue state like North Korea.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was grave risk that North Korea could "miscalculate" the U.S. response to its weapons testing and warned Pyongyang not to under-estimate Washington's resolve.

South Korea installed the four remaining launchers of a U.S. anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on a former golf course south of its capital, Seoul, early on Thursday. Two launchers had already been deployed.

More than 30 people were hurt when about 8,000 police broke up a blockade near the site by about 300 villagers and members of civic groups opposed to the deployment, fire officials said.

The deployment has drawn strong objections from China, which believes the system's radar could be used to look deeply into its territory and will upset the regional security balance.
Mexico expels the ambassador of North Korea in the country over the recent nuclear weapons testing.