Few good options in Trump arsenal to counter defiant North Korea
WASHINGTON: Despite his campaign vows to take a tougher line with North Korea, President Donald Trump’s restrained public reaction to Pyongyang’s first ballistic missile launch on his watch underscores that he has few good options to curb its missile and nuclear programmes.
The responses under consideration – which range from additional sanctions to US shows of force to beefed-up missile defense, according to one administration official – do not seem to differ significantly so far from the North Korea playbook followed by Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.
Even the idea of stepping up pressure on China to rein in a defiant North Korea has been tried – to little avail – by successive administrations. But Beijing is showing no signs of softening its resistance under a new US president who has bashed them on trade, currency and the contested South China Sea.
More dramatic responses to North Korea’s missile tests would be direct military action or negotiations. But neither appears to be on the table – the first because it would risk regional war, the latter because it would be seen as rewarding Pyongyang for bad behavior. And neither would offer certain success.
“Trump’s options are limited,” said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.
Trump’s initial public comments on Saturday on the test launch of what was believed to be an intermediate-range Musudanclass missile were unexpectedly measured – and brief – compared to earlier bluster about another US adversary, Iran, since he took office on January 20.
“I just want everybody to understand, and fully know, that the United States of America is behind Japan, our great ally, 100 per cent,” Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, speaking in a solemn tone alongside visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The US president did not mention North Korea or signal any retaliatory plans for what was widely seen as an early effort to test the new administration.
By contrast, Trump tweeted “It won’t happen!” in January after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the North was close to testing an intercontinental missile.
White House adviser Stephen Miller insisted on ABC’s ‘ This Week’ that Trump’s one-sentence statement was an ‘ important show of solidarity’ with Japan. He told ‘ Fox News Sunday’ the administration was going to bolster its allies in the region against the ‘increasing hostility’ of North Korea.
While no one can rule out that Trump might still take to Twitter with harsh rhetoric as he often does, some analysts said his relatively subdued initial statement could show that aides have convinced him not to be baited by Pyongyang into issuing threats that would be hard to carry out, especially while his North Korea strategy is still being formulated. — Reuters ballistic