Heated Words Intensify North Korea Situation
D. S. Mitchell
At his Bedminster N.J. golf club, on a scheduled “working vacation” Trump was questioned by reporters. Trump seemed willing to talk and answered questions freely in an unscheduled “press conference.” Trump’s first and last solo press conference was on February 16, 2017.
Facing growing nuclear threat from North Korea the president was quick to warn the Kim Jong-Un regime against any further provocations, “North Korea best not make any more threats to the U.S. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen before.”
His inflammatory words rattled the international community. Trump’s words came after the Washington Post released a story detailing the assertion of at least one U.S. intelligence agency that North Korea has successfully miniaturized a nuclear warhead that can be attached to missiles, expanding the range and power of the North Korean military.
Once again senior officials were surprised and stunned by the ferocity of the President’s words, and had trouble mounting a unified message. Despite their efforts at damage control it was obvious to anyone watching that there are deep divisions within the administration. The New York Times reported, “presidential advisors calibrated his dire warning with statements if not directly contradictory, emphasized different points.”
Tillerson stressed diplomacy, while Defense Secretary James Mattis said North Korea “risked the end of its regime and the destruction of its people if it does not stand down.
In response to the U.S. heightened rhetoric the North Korean military issued a statement late Wednesday. The North Koreans dismissing the “fire and fury” warning as a “load of nonsense.” (I think they mean it is all a load of shit.) They followed with “absolute force would work on someone (Trump) so bereft of reason.” The North Korean military threatened to turn the “U.S. mainland into the theater of a nuclear war.” Finally, they added that an American strike on North Korean missile and nuclear targets would be “mercilessly repelled”
The spiraling rhetoric has created a sense of agitation and anxiety around the world. Some have compared it to the Cuban missile crisis. Tensions have heated up since news of the North Korean advancements in ICBM technology.
Of significance, neither Mattis, Kelly or Tillerson were advised in advance that Trump would be making statements related to North Korea. No one. You heard me, insiders confirm, no one knew North Korea would come up in a spontaneous press conference. There had been no co-ordination between the three most important pillars of American foreign policy, the Commander-in-chief, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of State. Why aren’t these guys talking to each other?
Apparently there has been little discussion between the parties as it related to North Korean policy. It seems amazing that there has been little policy discussion related to the future of the Korean peninsula and the darkening threat of Kim Jong-Un, since this has been a simmering problem for the last fifty years.
So here we go again, Trump an impulsive and chaotic man, flying by the seat of his pants saying things off the cuff, often for shock value. I would like to remind the president that the United States government is not a reality show. The global political scene is not the place for cliff hanging “to be continued” season finales.
Trumps thoughtless and inflammatory comments do nothing but increase tensions with no good outcome. If POTUS wants to say stupid things, then he should avoid people who do not have nuclear weapons. Busy yourself with attacks Sessions and McConnell, please. Attacking an unstable despot in SE Asia makes no sense. Instability is only good for a guy trying to distract from a growing conspiracy and money laundering case.
Damage control after the presidents comments reflected the struggle inside the administration to get on the same policy page. Ellen Frost an Asia specialist at the East-West Center said, “I don’t think there is a single policy at work. I’m not even sure if Trump cares about having a consistent policy on any subject, ” she told Peter Baker and Gardiner Harris in an 8-9-2017 interview for the New York Times. Frost continued, saying she felt the “fire and fury” threat was a “play to demonstrate toughness to his political base followed by more nuanced cleanup operations on the part of Tillerson and Mattis, who are both walking a political tightrope”.
On Wednesday Trump posted a link to a news report on his threat and followed up by bragging that he had ordered the “modernization of American nuclear arsenal. Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world.”
Analysts were reporting “deep anxiety in the Asia-Pacific region over the prospect that a war of words could easily turn into a real war.” Some are saying “Trump is just being Trump”, though a bit bombastic and inflammatory.
Rex Tillerson attempted to tamper down the situation, telling reporters when he landed in Guam to refuel, that he “saw no reason to believe that war was imminent. He urged North Korea to engage in talks about its nuclear program. Saying, “I think Americans should sleep well at night, have no concern about this particular rhetoric of the last few days. Nothing I have seen and nothing I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours.”
Tillerson further described the president’s words were designed to give something to Kim Jong-Un that he could relate to and understand, because Kim doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language.
Defense Secretary Mattis took a stronger tone, not ruling out massive retaliation that “could destroy North Korea.” He continued in a prepared statement, indicating that the State Department was “making every effort to resolve this global threat through diplomatic means, it must be noted that the combined allied forces now possess the most precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on earth.” The tenor of the Mattis statement stressed international solidarity against North Korea.
At the urging of the Trump Administration, fronted by our feisty UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, the UN Security Council unanimously approved strict new sanctions against North Korea last Saturday. China and Russia supported the action, however it is unknown how hard either of them will work to enforce the sanctions.
Despite the different tone of the messages coming from Trump, Tillerson and Mattis the White House insists that they are speaking with one voice as long as its Trump’s voice and not Tillerson. Really? I’m finding this extremely dangerous. There is no consistency in tone or message from this administration. As I said at the beginning, Trump talks to no one before he starts his attacks.
Trump keeps ratcheting up the dialogue tweeting this morning August 11, 2017 the following: “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim will find another path.”
Trump needs to be the center of constant chaos because he “bores easily”. Well, he is now on the world stage with the greatest assembled weaponry in human history, and I have no confidence that he won’t want the same chaos in world affairs as he enjoys in his personal life.
Former ambassador Alexander Vershbow said the current policy was “incoherent and the threat of military action will likely harden the North Korean stance and make it more difficult to get China to follow through on its support for the UN sanctions.”
Tillerson says the phone lines are open for communication. Let’s see if he gets a call, or a new ballistic test headed to Guam. If our real goal is still de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula I believe the only way to get to that end is through increased Chinese pressure on the Kim regime. Diplomacy is becoming more and more needed and less and less heeded.
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