France’s Emmanuel Macron rejects any military solution to North Korea and warns against scrapping the nuclear deal with Iran in an exclusive CNN interview.
« Why? Because we stopped everything with North Korea years and years ago. We stopped any monitoring, any discussions with them, and what’s the result? They will probably get a nuclear weapon. I don’t want to replicate that situation with Iran. »
Macron spoke to CNN during and after US President Donald Trump’s debut address, when Trump again called the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un « rocket man » and threatened to « totally destroy » North Korea.
Macron warned against harsh rhetoric. « My point is not to increase pressure by issuing words against words, » he said. « We have to decrease tension and protect people in the region. »
Any military solution to North Korea’s drive to develop ballistic nuclear missiles would result in tragedy: « Look at the map, if we talk of a military solution we speak about a lot of victims. Building peace is what we have to do in this region, » Macron said, speaking in English.
Macron said North Korea was a very good example of how not to do things, and compared the example of the East Asian nation with the current nuclear agreement with Iran, which Trump described as « one of the worst » deals the US has ever made and has threatened to tear up.
He said it would be a « big mistake » for the US to withdraw from the agreement with Iran. « I don’t think this Iran deal, this nuclear deal with Iran, is [the be all and end all] of everything to do with Iran. If President Trump considers it is not sufficient, I do agree with that. [But] we have this deal. »
« I think that the outcome of this deal is that now we have the monitoring process with international urgency following the situation, and I think it is better than nothing.
