Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump, Mattis warn N. Korea
H-bomb test claim sparks U.S. warning
The president and defense secretary spoke with one voice in response to North Korea’s hydrogen bomb claim, saying it’s inviting a massive military response.
WASHINGTON — Responding to North Korea’s claimed test of a hydrogen bomb, President Donald Trump on Sunday indicated military action was an option, threatened to halt all trade with countries doing business with Pyongyang — a veiled warning to China — and faulted South Korea for its “talk of appeasement.”
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis followed on Sunday with a blunt warning, saying the U.S. will answer any threat from the North with a “massive military response — a response both effective and overwhelming.”
Kim Jong Un’s regime on Sunday claimed “perfect success” in an underground test of what it called a hydrogen bomb. It was the North’s sixth nuclear test since 2006 and involved a device potentially vastly more powerful than the weapon that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II.
Trump, asked by a reporter during a trip to church services if he would attack the North, said: “We’ll see.” No U.S. military action appeared imminent, and the immediate focus appeared to be on ratcheting up economic penalties, which have had little effect.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting at the request of the U.S., Japan, France, Britain and South Korea. It would be the Security Council’s second urgent session in under a week on the North’s weapons tests, which have continued in the face of a series of sanctions.
Members of Congress expressed alarm at the North’s test and emphasized strengthening U.S. missile defenses. Leaders in Russia, China and Europe issued condemnations.
In brief remarks after a White House meeting with Trump and other national security officials, Mattis told reporters that the U.S. does not seek the “total annihilation” of the North, but then added somberly, “We have many options to do so.” The administration has emphasized its pursuit of diplomatic solutions, knowing the potentially horrific costs of war with the North. But the decision to have Mattis deliver a public statement seemed to suggest an escalating crisis.
Mattis also said the international community is unified in demanding the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that Kim should know that Washington’s commitment to Japan and South Korea is unshakeable.
In a pair of tweets issued Sunday morning, Trump wrote: “North Korea has conducted a major Nuclear Test. Their words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States ... North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.”
Trump also scolded South Korea, a longtime U.S. ally, stating “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!”
Trump warned in a fourth tweet, “The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.”
The tumult in the region comes amid escalating economic tensions with South Korea. Trump is considering withdrawing the United States from a freetrade agreement with South Korea, a long-standing economic and diplomatic partner of the United States.
The precise strength of the underground nuclear explosion had yet to be determined. South Korea’s weather agency said the artificial earthquake caused by the explosion was five times to six times stronger than tremors generated by the North’s previous five tests.
North Korea’s state-run television broadcast a special bulletin to announce the test, and said Kim signed the go-ahead order. Earlier, the party’s newspaper published photos of Kim examining what it said was a nuclear warhead being fitted onto an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Sunday’s detonation builds on recent North Korean advances that include test launches in July of two ICBMs that are believed to be capable of reaching the mainland U.S.
The North says its missile development is part of an effort to build a viable nuclear deterrent that can target U.S. cities.
The Arms Control Association said the explosion appeared to produce a yield in excess of 100 kilotons of TNT equivalent, which it said strongly suggests the North tested a high-yield but compact nuclear weapon that could be launched on a missile of intermediate or intercontinental range.
Beyond the science of the blast, North Korea’s accelerating push to field a nuclear weapon that can target all of the United States is creating political complications for the U.S. as it seeks to balance resolve with reassurance to allies that Washington will uphold its decades-long commitment to deter nuclear attack on South Korea and Japan.