Novice Tillerson tackles big guns
TOP POWER: US TO WARD OFF NUKE STAND-OFF WITH N KOREA
Secretary of state set to iron out terms with the leadership of the nervous region.
With North Korea’s drive to field a nuclear-armed missile rapidly emerging as President Donald Trump’s first foreign crisis, his top diplomat is heading to a nervous region.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a former oil executive with no government experience, has yet to make an impact in Washington, where he has not even appointed senior staff.
But this week, he will head as emissary of the world’s top power to Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing to tackle a nuclear stand-off that threatens to tip into a catastrophic war.
Tillerson will arrive in Tokyo tomorrow for talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, who watched Pyongyang’s latest missile tests with alarm.
On Friday, he will be in Seoul and a South Korea mired in a domestic political crisis but also still braced for further provocations from its belligerent northern neighbour.
The secretary will meet Hwang Kyo-Ahn – who is acting president until an election can be held to replace impeached leader Park Geun-Hye – and talk with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se.
Then, on Saturday, Tillerson will be in China, the United States’ nearest peer as a world power and perhaps the only one that retains any leverage over Kim Jong-Un’s regime.
China supported previous UN sanctions against North Korea, and has in theory halted coal imports from its smaller neighbour, but it is reluctant to take steps that could see the regime of JongUn fall.
Since coming into office in January, and especially since the most recent North Korean missile tests last week, Trump has been looking for ways to turn up the pressure on Pyongyang.
“I think it’s well-known that we are looking currently at approaches to the North Korea question and there is a range of things that are being considered,” a senior US official said.
Among the options pushed by the hawkish wing of the Washington foreign policy community are secondary sanctions that would target any Chinese banks that work with Pyongyang.
But officials preparing the trip, briefing reporters anonymously, said no major announcements were imminent. –