Missile strikes in Syria a warning to others

WASHINGTON— U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian airbase in retaliation for a chemical weapon attack carries a message for any nation operating outside of international norms. He didn’t specify North Korea, but the context was clear enough.

“If you violate international agreements, if you fail to live up to commitments, if you become a threat to others, at some point, a response is likely to be undertaken,” Tillerson told ABC’s This Week.

There was little doubt the missile strikes would be seen in Pyongyang as a message. The North has long claimed that the U.S. is preparing some kind of assault against it and justifies its nuclear weapons as defensive in nature.

U.S. navy ships are a common presence in the Korean Peninsula region and serve, in part, as a show of force. On Saturday night, the Pentagon said a navy carrier strike group was moving toward the western Pacific Ocean to provide more of a physical presence in the region.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, described the decision to send the carrier group as “prudent.” He said Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping had agreed that North Korea’s pattern of “provocative behaviour” was unacceptable and the U.S. was acting accordingly. “This is a rogue regime that is now a nuclearcapable regime . . . So, the president has asked us to be prepared to give him a full range of options to remove that threat to the American people and our allies . . . in that region,” McMaster said on Fox News Sunday.

North Korea has pledged to bolster its defences to protect against airstrikes.