‘Fire and fury’
Trump’s ‘retaliation’ threat vs. NK
Kim says he’d strike US troops in Guam
President Trump warned North Korea on Tuesday to stop its belligerent behavior against the US or face “fire and fury.”
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump said.
Despotic North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said, they will be met with the fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before,” the president added.
Trump made the comments to reporters at his Bedminster, NJ, golf resort before conducting a briefing on opioid addiction.
Kim’s regime has been making increasingly hostile statements against the US, including a threat to launch a nuclear strike if North Korea is attacked militarily.
On Tuesday, the stakes increased when The Washington Post reported that the Defense Intelligence Agency has determined that Kim has developed the capability to produce a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles.
That report follows another government study that calculates North Korea now controls as many as 60 nuclear weapons. But some experts believe that number could be much smaller.
The findings show that Pyong- yang’s efforts to develop a longrange missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon with enough range to strike the US mainland is progressing more rapidly than experts had predicted.
Trump had vowed not to allow North Korea to cross the nuclear threshold. “It won’t happen!” he wrote on Twitter on Jan. 2.
The White House has flexed its military muscle by dispatching warships to the waters off the Korean peninsula after a North Korea test launch on July 28.
On Monday, the US flew two B1B bombers over the Korean peninsula out of Guam’s Anderson Air Force base as part of its “continuous bomber presence,” the Pacific air forces reported.
Days earlier, the US tested an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental missile in California.
The US military is said to be coordinating missions in the region with Japan and South Korea.
The president also has pushed China, North Korea’s main trading partner, to pressure Kim to rein in his weapons programs but has been frustrated by what he called Beijing’s lack of effort.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley called newly imposed UN sanctions against North Korea a “gut punch” and warned the regime of possible military action if it continues developing weapons.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to impose severe economic sanctions on North Korea for launching two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July. The ban on North Korean exports of coal, iron and seafood products is expected to cost Kim’s government $1 billion a year and is intended to starve the country’s weaponsdevelopment program.
North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. -President Trump on Tuesday
AND now, the hard part.
Over the weekend, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley displayed deft diplomatic skills, winning the consent of China and Russia to punish North Korea. The Security Council unanimously voted for new sanctions that could cripple Pyongyang’s ability to finance its arms race. By UN standards, the reaction to two July intercontinental ballistic missile tests was swift.
And not a moment too soon: The Washington Post reported Tuesday, after seeing a confidential Defense Intelligence Agency report, that “North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, crossing a key threshold on the path to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power.”
The sanctions vote, while welltimed, was hard work: Russia has weirdly argued the July 4 North Korean test wasn’t an ICBM, so no new sanctions were needed. Last week, Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebeznya told me that in Moscow’s analysis, the other launch — on July 28 — was also of an “inter-range ballistic missile.”
Meanwhile, China, always reluctant to punish bad global actors, was decidedly unenthusiastic about sanctioning Pyongyang.
Yet, Haley managed to unite the council around a painful package, sanctioning a third of North Korea’s non-armaments exports, estimated at $3 billion in coal, iron and fishing products. Once enacted, these restrictions would hurt.
Haley was justified in taking a small victory lap. But she also wisely cautioned the council: “We should not fool ourselves into thinking we have solved the problem. Not even close.”
Sanctions alone rarely move rogue regimes to change behavior, and they haven’t slowed Pyongyang in the past. Yet, when coupled with a true military threat, disruption of illicit arms supplies, cutting off access to banks and other means, they can be an effective tool.
If countries like China actually abide by them.
China is by far Pyongyang’s biggest — almost only — trading partner. And even after voting for past Security Council restrictions on the North’s coal exports, Beijing continued to clandestinely buy them.
So how do you get Beijing to do what it says it’ll do?
The Trump administration already threatened to punish China over unfair trade practices. As Politico reports, those threats were suspended to get China to vote yes at the United Nations. They should now be renewed, and linked to assurances that China won’t violate the sanctions.
Keeping Beijing on board is tricky, though. Chinese leaders fear what would follow a North Korean collapse. Millions of starving refu- gees would cross the Yalu River into China. Even worse, in Beijing’s view, if Korea unites, China would be surrounded by Americafriendly countries, with no buffering Communist regime in sight.
But remember, Premier Xi Jinping isn’t happy with Kim Jong-un either.
Beijing had reportedly tried to groom the dictator’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, to replace the reigning strongman. Oops: in February, Cain had Abel killed in Malaysia. In 2013, Kim assassinated Uncle Jang Song-thaek, who had long served as China’s point man in Pyongyang.
China has less control over Kim Jong-un than it had over his father or grandfather, and much less influence over Pyongyang than widely assumed in the West. The trick for Trump will be to convince Xi that Kim is more trouble than he’s worth.
But how do you do that while ramping up American military presence in the Pacific, which worries China even more than the Norks?
In UN speeches Sunday, both the Chinese and Russian ambassadors insisted that joint naval exercises the United States conducts with its Pacific allies must stop, and that there’s “no military solution” to North Korea’s military threat.
Trump is slowly making clear to China that America’s presence in the region will grow, since it involves long-term defense treaties with allies and an obligation to guarantee free navigation. Fresh US naval assets continue to arrive, and new missile-defense systems are to be deployed in South Korea and Japan.
There are plenty of areas in which to negotiate with China. Trade, intellectual-property theft and cyber snooping come to mind. But on North Korea, America must stick to clear non-negotiable red lines.
A belligerent madman who already threatens Alaska and will soon have the means to wreak havoc on Manhattan cannot be “contained,” so he must be stopped. If the United Nations can’t do it, America must.
Insisting first that China must stick to new UN sanctions is a good start.