Entire Senate to visit White House this week for North Korea briefing

The full U.S. Senate has been invited to visit the White House Wednesday for a classified briefing on North Korea, presidential spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI

April 24 (UPI) — The entire U.S. Senate will visit the White House on Wednesday to receive a classified briefing on North Korea — a rare move that signals the Trump administration’s growing focus on the potential threat from socialist nation.

All 100 lawmakers in the upper chamber are set to attend the meeting, along with select other officials involved in the government’s decision-making process, such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer announced the meeting at a news briefing Monday, and said it was set up by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., not the White House.

“We are just serving as the location,” Spicer said.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will also attend.

The meeting comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang regarding the Asian nation’s nuclear capabilities. In recent weeks, North Korea has test fired missiles and publicly defied warnings from Western governments.

President Donald Trump spoke by phone Monday to the leaders of Japan and China about the North Korean threat, officials said.

Senate lawmakers are often briefed on matters of national security but it’s extremely uncommon for the entire chamber to visit the White House for such a purpose.

It was unclear Monday how many senators plan to attend the briefing.

Trump’s administration has expressed concern in recent weeks about Pyongyang’s persistent saber-rattling. The North Korean regime has warned the United States against interfering in its military activities — including the possibility that the Pentagon might respond to future missile tests by shooting them out of the sky.

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