With his threat to “totally destroy North Korea”, Mr Donald Trump has stoked fresh jitters in Asia..
With his threat to “totally destroy North Korea”, Mr Donald Trump has stoked fresh jitters in Asia.
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” the US President said in his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
US allies Japan and South Korea, while blindsided by its vehemence, have sought to cast a positive spin on the speech. China and Russia, meanwhile, have again urged restraint and a return to dialogue.
Pyongyang, wont to meet threats by the US with fiery rhetoric, had not responded as of last night.
Yesterday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the global community needed to unite to enforce sanctions and apply pressure on North Korea to stop its nuclear and missile programmes. “Now is not the time for dialogue. Now is the time to apply pressure,” he told a gathering of investors at the New York Stock Exchange.
He and Mr Trump, along with South Korean President Moon Jae In, will meet for trilateral talks today (tomorrow, Singapore time).
The North Korean threat has provided Mr Abe with fresh impetus to revise the pacifist Constitution, as a means of bolstering the nation’s ability to deter Pyongyang. This will likely be laid out in his ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s campaign manifesto in a snap Lower House vote expected next month.
Mr Trump’s previous comments – that the US was “locked and loaded” to rain “fire and fury like the world has never seen” on North Korea – were privately met with disquiet among officials in Tokyo and Seoul.
