Asia stunned by Trump threat
President’s rhetoric ‘full of military force’
SEOUL: Was it a bluff? A warning that Washington would shoot down North Korea’s next missile test? A restatement of past policy? Or simply just what it seemed: a straightforward threat of annihilation from the president of the United States?
Officials and pundits across Asia struggled yesterday to parse Donald Trump’s vow on Tuesday at the UN General Assembly to “totally destroy North Korea” if provoked.
In a region well used to Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear weapons generating a seemingly never-ending cycle of threats and counter-threats, Mr Trump’s comments stood out.
South Korea officially played them down, while some politicians worried that Mr Trump’s words signalled a loss of influence for Seoul.
Analysts across Asia expressed surprise, worry, even wry amusement, in one case, that Trump’s words seemed to mirror threats normally emanating from North Korean state media.
Officials from the office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a liberal who has advocated dialogue with the North while being forced into a hawkish position by the North’s weapons tests, called Mr Trump’s words a signal of Washington’s strong resolve to deal with the North, but also essentially a repetition of the basic stance that all options will be considered when confronting Pyongyang.
Mr Trump has previously threatened the North with “fire and fury”. Pyongyang responded to those past remarks with a string of weapons tests, including its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation and two missiles that flew over US ally Japan.
Park Soo-hyun, a Moon spokesman, said Mr Trump’s comments “reaffirmed the need to put maximum sanctions and pressure against North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations” so that Pyongyang realises that abandoning its nuclear weapons is the only way forward.
Marcus Noland, a North Korea specialist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said in an online post that Mr Trump’s threat will feed a long-standing North Korean narrative that claims that the US poses an existential threat.
“With those words, President Trump handed the Kim regime the soundbite of the century. It will play on a continuous loop on North Korean national television,’’ Mr Noland wrote.
North Korea’s regular weapons tests are an attempt to create an arsenal of nuclear missiles that can threaten US troops throughout Asia and the US mainland.
Pyongyang tested its first two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July and claims that it can now accurately reach the US homeland, though outside experts say the North may still need more tests before its weapons are fully viable. Each new test pushes the nation that much closer to that goal.
Some South Korean opposition politicians saw the comments as another sign that South Korea is losing its voice in international efforts to deal with the North’s nuclear programme.
Mr Trump’s UN speech came days after US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis created unease in South Korea by saying without elaboration that the United States has military options against North Korea that wouldn’t involve the destruction of Seoul. The South Korean capital is within easy artillery range of the huge array of North Korean weapons dug in along a border only an hour’s drive from greater Seoul’s 25 million people.
Kim Su-min, a lawmaker in the People’s Party, expressed worry that South Korean officials heard nothing from Washington before both Gen Mattis’ and Mr Trump’s remarks.
“The government should comprehensively review its diplomatic and national security system and do its absolute best so that our stance on critical issues related to the existence of our country and the lives of our people doesn’t go ignored,” Mr Kim said.
Diplomacy meant to rid the North of its nukes has been moribund for years, and Pyongyang has made huge strides over the last several years in its quest for nuclear tipped missiles that can reach anywhere in the world. Mr Trump has pushed Beijing, which is the North’s only major ally, to do more to influence Pyongyang’s behaviour, so far to no avail.
A Chinese expert on North Korea was surprised by the vehemence of Mr Trump’s speech, saying “his rhetoric is full of military force”.
Cheng Xiaohe of Renmin University said in an interview that he initially thought that “the US had nearly declared war on North Korea”.
The speech signals that “if North Korea conducts another missile test, the US is very likely to intercept”.