Kim Jong Un’s belligerence stops ‘short of the red line,’ analysts say
‘All options are on the table,’ Trump says after missile launch
President Trump warned Tuesday that “all options are on the table” in response to North Korea’s latest missile launch, but a military one seems unlikely, security analysts said Tuesday.
“I think the administration sees that an attack would be so escalatory that we probably ought to avoid that,” said Bruce Bennett, an analyst at RAND Corp.
Trump issued the warning after the launch of a midrange ballistic missile over Japanese territory for the first time.
Trump’s response was more measured than his earlier threat to bring “fire and fury” to North Korea.
He said Tuesday that North Korea’s “threatening and destabilizing actions” increase the country’s isolation, and Pyongyang ’s actions show “contempt for its neighbors.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has continuously defied world opinion in pursuit of his country’s nuclear weapons program, has managed to walk up to a red line without crossing it, analysts said.
He threatened to fire four missiles toward Guam, a U.S. territory. Instead, he sent a single missile flying over Japan, a slight- ly less provocative act.
“This is just short of the red line,” said Patrick Cronin, an analyst at the Center for a New American Security. It allows Kim to defy the United States without forcing Washington’s hand. “He’s seeking better leverage in what is essentially a negotiation.”
Trump did not reveal what options he is considering. “We’ll see, we’ll see,” he said before boarding a helicopter for a trip to tour areas of Texas ravaged by Hurricane Harvey.
North Korea said Wednesday that Kim was present for the missile launch and said his country will continue to watch “U.S. demeanors” before it decides on future actions. Kim called the launch a “meaningful prelude” to containing Guam.
Cronin said Trump’s more measured response Tuesday seems to reflect the discipline his new chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly, brought to the White House.
Washington does have some options, including additional sanctions or demonstrations of force, such as flying bombers near North Korean airspace. “We cannot let this stand,” Cronin said.
North Korea has twice fired rockets that it said carried satellites over Japan — in 1998 and 2009 — but Tuesday’s launch was the first time it fired a ballistic missile over the island nation.
The Pentagon confirmed that the missile’s northeastern path “did not pose a threat to North America.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assailed the missile launch and said he and Trump agreed in a phone call to seek an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council. He quoted Trump as saying the United States was “with Japan 100%.”
Abe said he and Trump saw the launch as an unprecedented threat, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported.
Residents in several prefectures in northern regions of Japan were told to take cover when the missile’s flight path was detected.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile traveled nearly 1,700 miles and reached a maximum height of 341 miles as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga described the test as an “unprecedented, grave threat.”
The South Korean government said in a statement that it “condemns in the strongest terms this provocation.” It said if the nuclear and missile provocations continue, it will respond strongly based on a “stalwart” alliance with the United States.
They agreed to “sternly” take action at the U.N. Security Council, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.
Tuesday’s launch came days after North Korea fired three shortrange ballistic missiles into the sea and a month after its second flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.