U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis joins White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. February 7, 2018. "It is too early to say if ... using the Olympics in a way to reduce tensions, if that is going to have any traction once the Olympics are over, we can't say right now," Mattis said. "In the midst of all this, he ran a military parade that highlighted his ballistic missiles. That is a very strange time, if in fact he is trying to show a warming," Mattis said, referring to Kim Jong Un.Mattis will meet his Italian counterpart in Rome and will attend a counter-Islamic State meeting.Pyongyang conducted its largest nuclear test last year and in November tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile that experts said has the range to reach anywhere in the United States.U.S. President Donald Trump and the North Korean leadership traded insults and threats of nuclear war as tensions rose, with Trump repeatedly dismissing the prospect or value of talks with North Korea.

Source: Egypt Today February 11, 2018 20:15 UTC