U.S. General and South Korean Leader Push for Diplomacy on North Korea<br />In a statement denouncing annual joint exercises between the United States and South Korean militaries, which are scheduled to begin on Aug. 21, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency warned<br />that a second Korean War would be a "nuclear war." "Even if no one wanted it, they would not be able to prevent a mere accidental spark from triggering a war," the statement said.<br />14, 2017<br />SEOUL, South Korea — Emphasizing diplomacy and sanctions over war, the top American general and South Korea’s president said on Monday<br />that they hoped to avoid armed conflict with North Korea, as China vowed to enforce new United Nations penalties.<br />In a meeting with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, whose country has been alarmed by Mr. Trump’s threats, Gen.<br />Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said military options were a last resort.<br />Without mentioning Mr. Trump’s "fire and fury" and "lock and load" threats to North Korea, they wrote<br />that the administration was applying "diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a dismantling of the regime’s ballistic-missile programs." Before the meeting with General Dunford, Mr.<br />The developments suggested that officials of the United States, South Korea<br />and China are seeking to emphasize a message in Asia of lowering tensions after President Trump’s apocalyptic threats last week over North Korea’s missile and nuclear testing.<br />"The United States military’s priority is to support our government’s efforts to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through diplomatic<br />and economic pressure," General Dunford was quoted as saying in a Korean-language statement released by Mr. Moon’s office after the meeting.<br />An editorial in the paper warned that the joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea would only make the situation worse.
