The Trump administration has settled on its DPRK strategy after a two-month review: “Maximum pressure and engagement,” AP reported.

US officials said Friday the president’s advisers weighed a range of ideas for how to get the DPRK to abandon its nuclear program, including military options and trying to overthrow Pyongyang's leadership. The White House also considered simply accepting the DPRK as a nuclear state.

DPRK’s army on Friday vowed a 'merciless' response to any US provocation, as tensions soared over Pyongyang's nuclear program and its failed missile test on Sunday.

In a statement on official news agency KCNA, the DPRK’s People's Army said Trump had "entered the path of open threat and blackmail against the DPRK".

Citing Washington's recent missile strike on Syria, the statement said US military bases in South Korea as well as Seoul's presidential Blue House "would be pulverized within a few minutes".

"The closer such big targets as nuclear powered aircraft carriers come (to the Korean peninsula), the greater would be the effect of merciless strikes," the statement said.

US officials settled on a policy that appears to represent continuity.

The administration’s emphasis, officials said, will be on increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of China. The officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the results of the policy review and requested anonymity. 

The Institute for Science and International Security said there was a worrying increase in the DPRK’s nuclear program, but said the arsenal may only have been as large as 13 atomic weapons at the end of 2016. Its research suggested a range between 10 and 16 such weapons two years earlier. 

The institute’s estimates are based on what it believes the DPRK has produced in plutonium and weapons-grade uranium. The margins represent uncertainty as to whether DPRK has one or two uranium enrichment facilities, reported AP.

“The bottom line is that the DPRK has an improving nuclear weapons arsenal,” said David Albright, the institute’s president.

He said the DPRK may have a handful of plutonium-based warheads it can mount on medium-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching South Korea and Japan. But it’s doubtful the DPRK is currently able to build reliable, survivable warheads for an intercontinental ballistic missile that can strike the US mainland, he said.

As for the Trump administration’s policy, the US officials said there was currently no engagement with the DPRK.

In an interview Friday with AP, DPRK’s Vice Minister Han Song Ryol said President Donald Trump’s tough tweets toward Pyongyang were adding to a “vicious cycle” of tensions. Han said if the US shows any sign of “reckless” military aggression, Pyongyang is ready to launch a pre-emptive strike of its own.

(Source: Agencies)