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White House: Trump won't draw 'red lines' for North Korea

US President Donald Trump has drawn the conclusion from his predecessor's policies that "red lines" are ineffective in international brinkmanship, his spokesperson said.

"Drawing red lines hasn't really worked in the past," White House spokesperson Sean Spicer told journalists in Washington yesterday.

President Barack Obama, who left office in January after eight years, infamously declared a red line for the Syrian regime on the use of chemical weapons, but seemed to ignore it when there appeared to be violations and his own Congress proved unwilling to authorise military involvement on the ground.

Spicer said that Trump, in contrast, "holds his cards close to the vest". The New York real estate tycoon, a political novice before his election in November, fancies himself as a master negotiator and published a bestseller, 'The Art of the Deal', decades before running for president.

"I think you're not going to see him telegraphing how he's going to respond to any military or other situation going forward," Spicer said. "That's just something that he believes has not served us well in the past."

During the presidential campaign, Trump criticised Obama's government for talking about an eventual offensive by the Iraqi government, with US support, to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State forces.

Spicer also said that Trump's suggestion to Chinese President Xi Jinping this month to take a tougher line with Pyongyang is "paying off".

"I think you see China playing a much more active role with respect to North Korea," he said. "Both politically and economically, they can continue to apply pressure to achieve results. And I think we''re going to continue to urge China to exhibit its influence in the region to get better results."

Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton, heading the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said yesterday that Washington is "working together with our allies and our partners to develop a range of options if this pattern of destabilising behaviours continues" by North Korea.

"The US goal, which is shared by our allies and China and the rest of the international community, remains the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," she said.

A "major provocation" such as a further North Korean nuclear test would draw a "pretty significant" international response, Thornton warned."We don't want to telegraph exactly what that is," she said.

"But I think that the US has been clear that we want to resolve this issue through the peaceful denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. We're definitely not seeking conflict or regime change, but we are committed to defending our people and our allies, should it be necessary."

- dpa

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