President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy North Korea was blunt and cavalier, but not reckless.
Many a world leader has come to the United Nations to give a mealy-mouthed speech or issue a vague declaration. Delegates understood they could remain awake at their discretion.
The action was different, and riveting, Tuesday at the U. N. when President Donald Trump lit into North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, using what we now recognize to be Trump’s trademark vocabulary of shock and audaciousness.
“Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime,” Trump said, mocking Kim and sounding more like a professional wrestler than a president.
In fact, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis held an impromptu news conference Monday to deliver a similar warning, though he used more nuanced language. It was almost as if Mattis wanted to balance Trump’s bluster by getting ahead of it with some good solid Pentagon whispering.
What Mattis said, according to The New York Times, was that the U. S. has military options to deal with North Korea that would not put Seoul at risk of being destroyed. Was he talking about cyberwarfare? A bombing campaign? Targeted assassination? Mattis wouldn’t say.
