US Vice President Mike Pence

Washington : US Vice President Mike Pence has said that Washington will keep up economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea to curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Pence made the remarks on Friday during a visit to an Air Force base in North Dakota, home to both B-52 bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, Xinhua news agency reported.

The US will continue to apply “economic and diplomatic pressure” so as to make Pyongyang “abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Pence said.

He also warned “all options are on the table” and the US will defend itself “with military power that is effective and overwhelming” when it is forced to do so.

Meanwhile, visiting US Secretary of Defence James Mattis also on Friday in Seoul said that “his country seeks no war, but the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.

The comments from the top Trump administration officials comes days before President Donald Trump’s Asia trip which is slated for November 3-14.

It would be his first trip to the region since assuming office, during which he would visit South Korea.

North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test early in September and a series of ballistic missile launches in recent months.

In response, the UN Security Council adopted a new resolution toughening sanctions on Pyongyang over its most powerful nuclear detonation.

—IANS