How has North Korea responded in the five weeks since President Donald Trump threated Pyongyang with « fire and fury? »
How has North Korea responded in the five weeks since President Donald Trump threated Pyongyang with « fire and fury? » A trio of missile launches and a hydrogen bomb test that is the communist nation’s most powerful to date.
And what have the U. S. and its allies achieved? A new set of U. N. sanctions that even Trump declared a « small step, » extensive talks and a rhetorical two-step that leaves them where they have been for years. While Washington warns of military options, it says it still wants a peaceful solution.
« We will defend our people and our civilization from all who dare to threaten our way of life, » Trump said at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday after Pyongyang conducted its longest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile. « This includes the regime of North Korea, which has once again shown its utter contempt for its neighbors and for the entire world community. »
Diplomacy on the North Korean nuclear standoff has been stalled for years. And there’s little sign that talks involving the U. S., North Korea and other interested countries can be arranged amid the almost weekly barrage of weapons tests and threats, let alone stop the North’s determined nuclear march.
Trump heads to the U. N. General Assembly meeting next week with the same suitcase of bad options as his predecessors. Only now, the threat is heightened. North Korea is closer than ever to its goal of building a military arsenal that can viably target both U. S. troops in Asia and the American homeland.
« We’ve been kicking the can down the road, and we’re out of road, » H. R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, told reporters on Friday.
U. S. options range from everything to accepting North Korea as a nuclear power to using military force in a bid to destroy its arsenal and even oust leader Kim Jong Un. Like his predecessors, Trump has opted for choices somewhere in between: economic sanctions and talk of eventual diplomacy or military action, depending on how North Korea responds.
