Porterville Recorder

Tone down North Korea rhetoric

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President Trump had some threatenin­g words for North Korea this past week and while we are not nearly alarmed as some Trump haters, we would encourage more diplomacy and less talk right now to calm nerves around the world.

As North Korea continues to threaten the United States with a nuclear attack, President Trump Tuesday said, he would hit that nation “with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

We certainly agree with those who have correctly said Trump has inherited this mess with North Korea and while what Trump said may be alarming to some, it is not all that different than language used by Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, George Bush and George W. Bush with their own internatio­nal crisis. The provoker here is North Korea leader Kim Jong Un who has for years now threatened the United States while he was allowed to develop nuclear weapons capability. Kim has vowed to attack America and after Trump’s statement, North Korea upped the ante by saying in a few days it will launch missiles to fly over Japan and land near the U.S. territory Guam, home to a major American naval base and several thousand Americans. That would be a serious act of war. We are hopeful the Administra­tion is doing all it can behind the scenes to reach the North Korean leaders and come to a peaceful resolution. But, if the somewhat seeming crazy North Korean leader attacks the U.S. or its territorie­s, then yes, that nation should face “fire and fury.”

 ??  ?? Editorials in The Portervill­e Recorder are the opinion of the editorial board which consists of Publisher Rick Elkins and the managing editor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessaril­y of...
Editorials in The Portervill­e Recorder are the opinion of the editorial board which consists of Publisher Rick Elkins and the managing editor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessaril­y of...
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