“Past experience has taught us that complacency and concessions only invite aggression.»
President Donald Trump singled out the “cruel dictatorship” of North Korea during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, calling its leader, Kim Jong Un, a “depraved character” and “menace that threatens our world” while touting his administration’s efforts to prevent the country from developing nuclear weapons capable of reaching the United States.
Trump devoted a large segment of his address to criticizing the regime, casting the diplomatic efforts of prior administrations as insufficient, and once again slammed his predecessors as too soft on the Kim regime, saying they “invited aggression.”
“Past experience has taught us that complacency and concessions only invite aggression and provocation,” Trump said. “I will not repeat the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this very dangerous position.”
The president pointed to the parents of American student Otto Warmbier, who died last June after he was returned to the U. S. following his imprisonment in North Korea, as evidence of Kim’s brutality.
“You are powerful witnesses to a menace that threatens our world, and your strength inspires us all,” he said.
Trump’s hard-line stance comes the same day The Washington Post reported that the White House pulled the likely nomination of a respected foreign policy expert to be the U.
