President Donald Trump on Wednesday downplayed the possibility of a dialogue with North Korea in a defiant tweet.
“The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years,” the president wrote. “Talking is not the answer!”
His comment follows the test of a North Korean missile this week that flew over Japan in what the U.S. and its allies have called a major provocation.
Trump on Tuesday said “all options are on the table” in response to Pyongyang’s latest test. With the Wednesday morning tweet, he aimed to signal he is not in favor of one of those options, talks to try to get North Korea to back off its nuclear and missile programs.
The U.S. and its allies have sought a diplomatic solution to curb the isolated nation’s aggression, enacting both unilateral and multilateral sanctions. In particular, they have sought to apply economic pressure through China, North Korea’s only major ally.
On Sunday, before the latest missile test, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. is “going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign” to see if it can bring North Korea to “the negotiating table.”
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