All sanctions, no talks will increase tensions on Korean Peninsula

Susan Thornton, the acting US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, spoke in a Senate hearing on Tuesday about the need to increase the pressure on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea so it will give up its nuclear weapons program.

Besides calling for the UN member states to implement their commitments, she said the United States has urged all countries to suspend or downgrade diplomatic relations and cut trade ties with Pyongyang.

The strategy is all sticks, no carrots. There is no consideration that less pressure, rather than more pressure, might be a more viable way to achieve the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.