Diplomatic solution on N. Korea urged

In letter, retired U.S. military leaders call on Trump to avert armed action

TOKYO — A group of 58 retired American military leaders is making a public plea to President Donald Trump, urging him not to take military action against North Korea but to instead pursue a diplomatic resolution to the current standoff.

As North Korea has demonstrated its increasing technical abilities, including the capacity to send a missile anywhere in the United States, Trump and some of his top aides have suggested that a military strike on North Korea might be the solution.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to “win victory in the showdown” with the United States, state media reported Wednesday.

Dozens of retired military leaders from across the services are writing to Trump to urge him not to start a conflict with North Korea but to instead choose diplomacy.

“The current approach taken by the United States is failing to stop North Korea from developing its nuclear and missile technology,” states the letter, which was to be sent to the White House Wednesday. “The United States must initiate and lead an aggressive, urgent diplomatic effort to freeze North Korean nuclear and missile development and reduce regional tensions.”

Military action would result in hundreds of thousands of casualties in South Korea, putting the lives of more than 150,000 Americans there at risk, and the United States would be drawn into a preventable war, the letter says.

“Military options must not be the preferred course of action,” it continues.

The 58 retired admirals and generals who signed the letter were motivated by the deteriorating situation in North Korea, said Michael Smith, the retired U.S. Navy rear admiral who initiated the letter and leads a new nonpartisan organization called the American College of National Security Leaders.

“We felt we had a moral obligation to share our concerns with the president,” Smith said. “It is clear that more can be done, and we are urging the president to explore every possible diplomatic option before it is too late and we find ourselves in a dangerous and preventable war.”

The Trump administration is continuing to send mixed signals to North Korea.

Right now is the “last, best chance to avoid conflict” with North Korea but “time is running out,” H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, said at a British think tank Tuesday.

As McMaster was speaking in London, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Trump administration is supportive of his call for talks.

“We’ve said from the diplomatic side we’re ready to talk anytime North Korea would like to talk, and we’re ready to have the first meeting without precondition,” Tillerson told a forum at the Atlantic Council in Washington on Tuesday.

Tillerson has regularly called for diplomacy with the isolated nation. But after his comments Tuesday, the White House played down the prospect of a policy shift.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump’s views hadn’t changed.

“North Korea is acting in an unsafe way not only toward Japan, China, and South Korea, but the entire world,” she said. “North Korea’s actions are not good for anyone, and certainly not good for North Korea.”

Joseph Yun, the State Department’s envoy on North Korea policy, is in Tokyo and Bangkok this week for talks with government officials about “ways to strengthen the pressure campaign” against North Korea after its latest ballistic missile test, the State Department said.

North Korean officials are struggling to decipher the Trump administration’s policy and the president’s tweets. They have contacted former officials, some with Republican ties and some who have been involved in North Korea policy in the past, to ask them to interpret Trump for them.

Meanwhile, the United Nations envoy to North Korea returned from a trip last week to the country deeply worried about the prospects for bringing an end to Kim’s nuclear weapons program, according to a European member of the Security Council who was briefed on the visit.

The envoy, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, reported that the North Koreans don’t believe the time is right for negotiations, according to the diplomat, who asked not to be identified discussing a private briefing. Kim’s regime plans to continue developing its nuclear program until it achieves a deterrent capability, the person said.

Feltman’s trip to Pyongyang followed a late-November missile test that North Korea said showed it can now reach the entirety of the continental U.S. Most military analysts, however, say its not clear North Korea can yet put a miniaturized nuclear weapon on that missile, protect it from burning up on re-entry in the Earth’s atmosphere and successfully deliver it to the U.S.

Feltman didn’t immediately reply to messages seeking comment on his briefing. After meeting with the Security Council on Tuesday, Feltman told reporters that he was unsure about the impact of his discussions in Pyongyang.

“I think we’ve left the door ajar,” Feltman said. “I fervently hope that the door to a negotiated solution will now be opened wide.”

Information for this article was contributed by Anna Fifield of The Washington Post and by Nick Wadhams and Kambiz Foroohar of Bloomberg News.