Trump has promised a get-tough approach on foreign policy.<\/b>
President Donald Trump said North Korea has been «behaving very badly» as his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was visiting South Korea. | Getty
Trump: North Korea has been ‘playing’ the U. S. for years
By Louis Nelson
03\/17\/17 09:40 AM EDT
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President Donald Trump said Friday that North Korea has been \u201cbehaving very badly\u201d and \u201c\u2019playing\u2019 the United States for years,\u201d a comment on Twitter that came just hours after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggested the possibility of a preemptive strike against the repressive regime.
\u201cNorth Korea is behaving very badly,\u201d Trump wrote in a post to Twitter Friday morning. \u201cThey have been \u2018playing\u2019 the United States for years. China has done little to help!\u201d
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Speaking Friday during his first visit to South Korea as America\u2019s top diplomat, the Associated Press reported that Tillerson said \u201call of the options are on the table,\u201d including the use of military force, when it comes to U. S. policy towards North Korea. A preemptive strike, Tillerson said, could be appropriate should North Korea\u2019s nuclear missile program escalate to a level \u201cthat we believe requires action. »
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Trump has promised a get-tough approach on foreign policy and has pledged that North Korea will not accomplish its goal of obtaining a nuclear missile capable of hitting the U. S. During Friday\u2019s visit, which included a trip to the demilitarized zone along the border between the two Koreas, Tillerson promised a \u201cdifferent approach\u201d from the U. S. towards North Korea and said that two decades of «diplomatic and other efforts» had failed to halt the \u201cever-escalating threat\u201d of its nuclear ambitions.
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Authors:
Louis Nelson
lnelson@politico.com
@louisjnelson
This story tagged under:
Donald Trump
Rex Tillerson
President Donald Trump
Donald Trump Presidency
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