That the Kim Jong-un regime is oppressive is not up for debate, but pledging to preventive military intervention in North Korea most certainly is.
President Trump is just concluding his first major tour of Asia, which started with a marathon of meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Japan. Prominent among their topics of conversation was North Korea, a subject on which, by Abe’s account at a press conference last Monday, the two men “are together 100 percent.”
That’s troubling news, as Abe’s approach seems to disdain diplomacy for reckless escalation. “Now is the time not for dialogue, but for applying a maximum level of pressure on North Korea… through all possible means,” he said Monday. Some of those means are economic in nature—Abe spoke of a forthcoming “decision of freezing assets of 35 North Korean entities and individuals”—but his comments, as well as remarks from Trump himself, made clear preventive military action is on the table, too.
North Koreans are “under a very repressive regime,” Trump said, “and I really think that, ultimately—I can tell you this—that I hope it all works out. It would be better for everybody. Certainly would be better for North Korea, but it would be better for everybody.”
The president never specified what he meant by “it,” but the most plausible interpretation is he was speaking of regime change of the forcible, U. S.-orchestrated variety. After all, if Trump and Abe decide to go to war together, the technically military-free Japan will not be the country supplying the great bulk of blood to be spilt and tax-dollars to be spent.
That the Kim Jong-un regime is oppressive and deplorable is not up for debate, but the wisdom of all but pledging the United States to preventive military intervention in North Korea most certainly is. The Pentagon recently sent a letter to members of Congress detailing the probable implications of such a decision, The Washington Post reported, and the picture is grim.
Military leaders believe “North Korea may consider the use of biological weapons,” the letter says.
