Speaking to CBS News Sunday Morning, the US ambassador to the UN was asked whether she could confirm that the Trump administration seemed be prepared for war with Pyongyang amid rising tensions in recent months. Haley responded that such an armed conflict remained "an option."
"No one wants war. The president doesn't want war. I don't want war. No one wants war. But it is an option," she said.
The statement came just hours after a North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson accused the US of "ruining the mood" of détente and "deliberately provoking the DPRK at the time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is moving toward peace and reconciliation."
This week, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that Trump and Kim are likely to hold their talks in Singapore in mid-June. If all goes to plan, the talks will be historic, becoming the first time that a sitting US president has ever met with a North Korean leader. President Trump confirmed Friday that a date and location for the meeting had been chosen, but offered no further details.
North and South Korea have formally remained in a state of war since 1953, with Pyongyang, Seoul, Beijing and Washington never reaching a formal peace accord to end the Korean War of 1950-1953.
