US President Donald Trump said on Thursday a major conflict with North Korea is possible in the standoff over its nuclear and missile programmes, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute. “There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told Reuters in an Oval Office interview ahead of his 100th day in office on Saturday. Trump said that he would love to solve things diplomatically but it would be very difficult. US media reported that Trump spoke just a day after he and his top national security advisers briefed US lawmakers on the North Korean threat and one day before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will press the United Nations Security Council on sanctions to further isolate Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programmes. Tensions rose between the US and North Korea earlier this month when the US announced that it would send a Navy strike group into the west Pacific near the Korean Peninsula amid increasing concern over the reclusive regime’s nuclear weapons programmes. North Korea quickly denounced the naval movement as an act of aggression and threatened a nuclear strike on the US if provoked. Since then, the two countries have hurled sweeping declarations at each other over North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, while military signals have put US allies in the region on high alert.
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