Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Tillerson talks tough on North Korea nuclear threat
The U.S. Secretary of State says “all options” are being considered to protect U.S. troops and allies.
SEOUL, South Korea — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned for the first time Friday that “all options” are being considered to counter North Korea’s emerging nuclear threat, including a military strike if necessary to safeguard allies and tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed in the region.
The threat of a U.S. military attack comes after a series of ballistic missile tests by Kim Jong Un’s government in recent weeks have heightened tensions across northeast Asia and raised the possibility of a conflict with an adversary that now possesses nuclear arms and appears close to being able to strike U.S. territory.
The tough talk appears to be a break from previous U.S. administrations, which emphasized diplomacy, economic sanctions and covert operations, including cyberattacks, to try to reduce the danger from one of the world’s most isolated, and unpredictable, dictatorships.
“Certainly we do not want for things to get to a military conflict,” Tillerson told reporters in Seoul on the second leg of his threenation visit to Asia, his first to the region since taking office.
“We’ve been quite clear on that in our communications. But obviously, if North Korea takes actions that threaten the South Korean forces or our own forces, then that will be met with an appropriate response,” he added.
“Let me very clear: The policy of strategic patience has ended,” he said, referring to the Obama administration’s policy of trying to wait out the North Korean regime while pressing it with economic sanctions and covert actions.
Tillerson arrives in Beijing on Saturday, where he is expected to meet President Xi Jinping. China remains North Korea’s chief political and economic patron but it has struggled over the years to rein in Pyongyang’s leadership.
“We’re exploring a new range of diplomatic, security and economic measures. All options are on the table,” he said.
Washington could reintroduce nuclear weapons to U.S. bases in South Korea to serve as a front-line deterrent. They were removed in 1991 under President George H.W. Bush as part of a post-Cold War effort to ease global nuclear tensions.
Previous administrations have considered a first strike against North Korean missile and nuclear facilities an option of last resort because it almost certainly would provoke a massive retaliation against South Korea and Japan. More than 75,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in those countries.
The mounting threat could pose the first major foreign policy crisis for the Trump White House. As a candidate, Donald Trump suggested letting Japan and South Korea build their own nuclear weapons to counter North Korea, but he has not pursued that as president.
Tillerson also appeared to reject the idea of trying to negotiate a freeze in North Korea’s weapons program, a policy that the Clinton administration tried in 1994 by supplying oil and other aid to Pyongyang in an effort to block its then-nascent nuclear development.
The so-called Agreed Framework successfully slowed Pyongyang’s ability to produce weapons-grade plutonium that could be used to fuel a bomb. But the deal collapsed in 2002 when Pyongyang shifted course and pursued a uranium-enrichment route to nuclear arms.
It conducted its first underground nuclear test in 2006 during the George W. Bush administration, and four tests since then. The most recent, last September, was said to produce a destructive yield larger than the nuclear bomb that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 at the end of World War II.
North Korea’s capabilities have expanded dramatically in the past year, suggesting it is getting closer to building an intercontinental ballistic missile that could carry a warhead to Alaska, Hawaii or the continental U.S.
“At this stage, I’m not sure we would be willing to freeze with the circumstance where they exist today, given that would leave North Korea with significant capabilities that would represent a true threat not just to the region but to American forces as well,” Tillerson said.
Tillerson’s remarks, standing with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, came a day after he declared in Tokyo that two decades of attempts to block North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles had failed and that a “different approach” was required.
Tillerson’s meeting in Seoul comes amid political upheaval in South Korea. Its president was removed from office last week in a corruption scandal that threatens nearly a decade of conservative party rule.
The leading candidate in the polls, Moon Jae-in, says he wants to delay installation of a new U.S. antimissile system, known as THAAD, which is intended to shoot down North Korean missiles.
The U.S. began moving parts of the system into South Korea last month, although it is not yet operational.
Chinese officials have complained that the system’s sophisticated radar would undermine China’s own military deterrent.
Tracy Wilkinson reported from Washington and special correspondent Matt Stiles from Seoul. Special correspondent Jessica Meyers in Beijing and staff writer W.J. Hennigan in Washington contributed.