Trump ignores pleas to calm N Korea tensions

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump on Tuesday accused North Korea of torturing a captive US student "beyond belief", spurning pleas from allies and foes in east Asia to tone down his warlike rhetoric.

For the first time, Trump publicly accused Pyongyang of abusing the late 22-year-old Otto Warmbier, an allegation likely to heighten tensions between the two nuclear powers. Last June the Ohio native was sent home in a coma after more than a year in prison in North Korea. He died a few days later. Aides say Trump was personally shocked and angered by Warmbier’s death, and that the government suspects mistreatment.

But the US president had stopped short of publicly accusing the regime of torture, a move that would raise expectations of a tough response, raise tensions and could complicate any future releases.

Since June, the United States and North Korea have traded military moves and bombastic insults in a stand-off over Kim Jong-Un’s nuclear and ballistic weapons programmes. After seeing Warmbier’s parents on television on Tuesday morning, Trump cast previous concerns aside.

"Otto was tortured beyond belief by North Korea", he said in an early morning tweet. The missive came just hours after South Korea -- whose densely-populated capital Seoul is located just 35 miles from the demilitarised zone dividing the Korean peninsula -- asked its US ally to take the heat out of the situation.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha visited Washington to warn it was imperative to "prevent further escalation of tensions or any kind of accidental military clashes which can quickly go out of control." Similarly, China, the North’s neighbor and only major ally, warned on Tuesday that any conflict would have "no winners".

Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said rhetorical sparring "will only increase the risk of confrontation and reduce the room for policy manoeuvre". US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, visiting India, stressed that Washington wants a diplomatic solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis.

"We maintain the capability to deter North Korea’s most dangerous threats but also to back up our diplomats in a manner that keeps this as long as possible in the diplomatic realm," he said in New Delhi after talks with his Indian counterpart. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un traded barbs in the wake of the North’s sixth nuclear bomb and multiple missile tests.