The United States is pushing for diplomacy with North Korea, but has said it has "many" military options against Pyongyang. While pledging to work with China, it has hinted at tactics that would not put Seoul at risk.
Image: Reuters/KCNA
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The US and China on Monday vowed to increase diplomatic pressure on North Korea, but the US maintained it had defense options.
US President Donald Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about North Korea's "continued defiance of the international community," the White House said in a statement on Monday.
The two leaders "committed to maximizing pressure on North Korea through vigorous enforcement of United Nations Security Council resolutions," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the US Senate's East Asia subcommittee wrote to China and 20 other nations, asking them to cut ties with North Korea, close down its diplomatic outposts and help oust the country from the United Nations.
Mexico, Spain expel diplomats
US Defense Secretary James Mattis on Monday insisted diplomatic efforts were bearing fruit, pointing to Mexico's expulsion of the North Korean ambassador in Mexico City.
Also on Monday, the North Korean ambassador to Spain was asked to leave the country within two weeks in protest of Pyongyang's nuclear tests, the Spanish Foreign Ministry announced on Twitter.
But North Korea has claimed that last week's fresh round of sanctions and diplomatic pressure would only encourage its continued defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
"The increased moves of the US and its vassal forces to impose sanctions and pressure on the DPRK will only increase our pace towards the ultimate completion of the state nuclear force," said a statement on the North Korean state media.
The latest sanctions limit shipments of crude and refined oil products, but they fall short of an embargo.
The Kim family has ruled North Korea for the last seven decades, with state-run propaganda praising Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un as godlike figures. DW looks at the rulers behind the myths.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
A young leader
Kim Il Sung, the first and "eternal" president of North Korea, took power in 1948 with the support of the Soviet Union. The official calendar in North Korea begins with his birth year, 1912, designating it "Juche 1" after the state's Juche ideology. He was 41 when, as shown here, he signed the 1953 armistice that effectively ended the Korean War.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Hero worship
In the years and decades after the war, Pyongyang's propaganda machine worked hard to weave a mythical narrative around Kim Il Sung. His childhood and the time he spent fighting Japanese troops in the 1930s were embellished to portray him as an unrivaled military and political genius.
At the 1980 party congress, Kim announced he would be succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Ruling to the end
In 1992, Kim Il Sung started writing and publishing his memoirs, entitled "Reminiscences: With the Century." Describing his childhood, the North Korean leader claims that he first joined an anti-Japanese rally at 6 years old and became involved with the independence struggle at 8.
The memoirs remained unfinished at Kim Il Sung's death in 1994.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/JIJI Press
In his father's footsteps
After spending years in the top tiers of the regime, Kim Jong Il took power after his father's death. Kim Jong Il's 16-year rule was marked by famine and economic crisis in an already impoverished country. However, the cult of personality surrounding him and his father, Kim Il Sung, grew even stronger.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/KCNA via Korean News Service
Rising star
Historians outside North Korea believe Kim Jong Il was born in a military camp in eastern Russia, most likely in 1941. However, the leader's official biography claims it happened on the sacred Korean mountain Paektu, exactly 30 years after his father, on April 15, 1942. A North Korean legend says the birth was blessed by a new star and a double rainbow.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Family trouble
Kim Jong Il had three sons and two daughters with three different women. This 1981 photo shows Kim Jong Il sitting besides his son Kim Jong Nam, with his sister-in-law and her two children in the background. Kim Jong Nam was eventually assassinated in 2017.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Grooming a successor
In 2009, Western media reported that Kim Jong Il had picked his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to take over as the head of the regime. The two appeared together at a military parade on 2010, a year before Kim Jong Il passed away.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/V. Yu
Together
According to Pyongyang, the death of Kim Jong Il in 2011 was marked by a series of mysterious events. State media reported that ice snapped loudly at a lake on the Paektu mountain during a sudden snowstorm, with a glowing message appearing on the rocks.
After Kim Jong Il's death, a 22-meter (72-foot) statue of him was erected next to the one of his father (l.) in Pyongyang.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Mysterious past
Kim Jong Un mostly stayed out of the spotlight before his ascent to power. His exact age is disputed, but he is believed to have been born between 1982 and 1984. He was reportedly educated in Switzerland. In 2013, he surprised the world by meeting with former NBA star Dennis Rodman in Pyongyang.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A new cult
Like the leaders before him, Kim Jong Un is hallowed by the state's totalitarian regime. In 2015, South Korean media reported about a new teacher's manual in the North that claimed Kim Jong Un could drive at the age of 3. In 2017, state media said that a monument to the young leader would be build on Mount Paektu.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Kctv
A Kim with a hydrogen bomb
Altough Kim took power at a younger age and with less of a public profile than his father and grandfather, he has managed to maintain his grip on power. The assassination of his half-brother Kim Jong Nam in 2017 served to cement his reputation abroad as a merciless dictator. The North Korean leader has also vastly expanded the country's nuclear arsenal.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/A. Young-joon
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US threatens military action
The US has refused to limit itself to non-violent efforts to curb Pyongyang's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile program, also hinting at military options.
On Sunday, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said the Security Council had run out of options and that the US might have to hand control to the Pentagon.
Defense chief Mattis dropped hints to journalists on Monday about the possible existence of military options that would spare Seoul from any counterattacks, but did not specify what those options might involve. North Korea is thought to have an artillery array pointed at Seoul as well as stockpiles of conventional, chemical and biological weapons.
Show of force
Mattis also confirmed that the US and South Korea were considering returning US nuclear weapons to the peninsula after removing them at the close of the Cold War.
The US military announced Monday that it had held bombing drills with South Korea, flying a pair of B-1B bombers and F-35 fighter jets over the Korean peninsula.
The North Korea crisis will likely dominate the UN General Assembly in New York this week. Trump is set to discuss the issue with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday.
Kim Jong Un 'not crazy'
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, meanwhile, has urged the international community to engage in direct talks with North Korea, in an interview with German tabloid Bild. Gabriel said direct talks involving North Korea, the US, China and Russia should offer Pyongyang "a security guarantee other than the nuclear bomb."
He said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was "not crazy," and that "he is following a coldly calculated strategy: he thinks that if he has a nuclear bomb, his regime is safe. Because no one will dare to threaten him."
aw/cmk (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)
China was North Korea's last major trading partner.
