Committee questions Trump’s nuclear authority

WASHINGTON: A US Senate committee held the first congressional hearing in more than four decades on the president’s authority to launch a nuclear strike, amid concern that tensions over North Korea’s weapons programme could lead to war.

Senator Bob Corker, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, held the hearing on Tuesday as President Donald Trump wrapped up a 12-day trip to Asia largely dominated by concerns about Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

Corker acknowledged that senators, including Democrats and Trump’s fellow Republicans, have raised questions about Trump’s authority to wage war, use nuclear weapons and enter into or end international agreements.

Trump has traded insults and threats with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and used expressions like “fire and fury” to hint that any use of lethal force against North Korea would be overwhelming.

On Sunday, he again insulted Kim by calling him “short and fat”.

But on Tuesday, Corker said the hearing was not intended to target Trump.

Democrats, however, made clear they were concerned about Trump.

During the hearing, retired Gen Robert Kehler, former commander of US Strategic Command, said the military can refuse to follow what it considers an illegal order, even a nuclear one.

But it was not clear after questions from committee members how that process would work.

Some senators want legislation to alter the president’s nuclear authority. Corker said he did not now support that idea.

“I do not see a legislative solution today, but that doesn’t mean that over the course of the next several months one might develop,” he told reporters after the hearing. — Reuters