President stirs the pot with new threat
Trump says of approach to North Korea: ‘Sorry, but only one thing will work!’
US President Donald Trump continued to make vague threats towards North Korea, saying that diplomatic negotiations and agreements over the years have not worked and that “only one thing will work,” without elaborating on what that one thing would be.
“Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid . . . hasn’t worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of US negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!” Trump tweeted in two messages.
North Korean officials have previously called some of Trump’s comments and tweets declarations of war.
US analysts have said that North Korea’s nuclear programme has quickly accelerated and the country is now making missile-ready nuclear weapons. Last week, tensions again escalated as North Korea threatened to shoot down US military planes, even if they are not in the country’s airspace.
The President’s latest tweets come as the world continues to try to decipher another cryptic message that Trump issued on Friday at the White House, as he posed for a photo with the country’s top military leaders.
“You guys know what this represents?” Trump asked reporters in the room that night. “Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.”
When pressed to explain what he meant, Trump said: “You’ll find out.”
The White House has declined to explain what, if anything, the President meant with that comment.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday responded to Trump’s tweets by saying he believes the best way to make North Korea come to its senses is to continue to impose strong economic sanctions.
Asked by reporters in Sydney what he thought the President meant, Turnbull said: “The best way of ensuring that this reckless, dangerous, criminal regime comes to its senses, without military conflict, is to continue to impose strong economic sanctions on North Korea.”
Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Trump and the international community was becoming increasingly frustrated by North Korea undermining the UN security council’s resolutions banning its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programme. She warned if it continued the US would have no choice but to increase its military presence in the region.
“South Korea and Japan will feel they are vulnerable and feel the need to increase their deterrence capability. So we believe that the collective strategy of bringing maximum political and diplomatic pressure to bear on North Korea must be undertaken by all nations to ensure North Korea changes course.”