Blinken says US plans full review of approach to North Korea

[WASHINGTON] President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Tuesday the incoming administration planned a full review of the US approach to North Korea to look at ways to increase pressure on it to come to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons.

"This is a hard problem that has plagued administration after administration, and it's a problem that has not gotten better, in fact it's gotten worse," Mr Blinken told his nomination hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

At the same time as trying to resolve the North Korea nuclear issue, Mr Blinken added, "We do want to make sure that in anything we do, we have an eye on the humanitarian side of the equation, not just on the security side of the equation."

REUTERS