The maximum pressure campaign of the Trump administration is working on North Korea, the White House said today, and ruled out any concession to Pyongyang right now.
"We think that the maximum pressure campaign is working. We are not going to let up on that campaign until we see some of the words that they've made go into concrete action. But they're moving in the right direction," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference.
Meanwhile, the US Senate today passed the North Korean Human Rights Act, a legislation that would update and reauthorise the 2004 law promoting human rights and freedom in the country.
"It is both America's moral responsibility and in our national security interest to hold accountable the North Korean dictatorship for being one of the world's worst human rights abusers," Senator Marco Rubio said.
The Kim regime, he said, "systematically and mercilessly terrorises" its own people, denying them their most basic freedoms.
"It engages in extrajudicial killings, abductions, arbitrary detention, arrest, torture, forced starvation, and sexual violence against women," Rubio said.
Senator ben Cardin said the North Korean people have suffered "enormously" for decades.
"As the US and our allies and partners in the region prepare to engage Pyongyang in potential denuclearisation talks, we cannot take our eyes off the deplorable human rights situation in that country. Promoting and defending human rights must always remain a core pillar of US diplomacy abroad, and this bill will underscore that," he said. -- PTI