Trump on North Korea: ‘Only one thing will work’
US president Donald Trump said that diplomatic efforts with North Korea have consistently failed, adding that “only one thing will work”, without elaborating further.
Trump has engaged in an escalating war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, trading insults amid rising tensions between the two countries rivals.
“Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid,” Trump tweeted.
It “hasn’t worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of US negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!”
Trump returned to the theme when he appeared on former governor Mike Huckabee’s show on Trinity Broadcasting Network television on Saturday, blaming previous administrations for not having adequately addressed the issue before.
This “should have been handled 25 years ago, it should have been handled 10 years ago, it should have been handled during the Obama administration,” the president said, referring to his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.
The US has not ruled out the use of force to compel Pyongyang to halt missile and nuclear tests, and Trump has threatened to destroy the country.
The president also told journalists at a recent gathering with military leaders to discuss Iran, North Korea and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group that the current period “could be the calm before the storm,” declining to clarify his remarks.
In recent days, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson flew home from meeting with top Chinese officials, Trump tweeted that his envoy was “wasting his time” in trying to probe North Korea’s willingness to talk.
The message came after Tillerson had revealed there were backchannels between US and North Korean officials.
James Mattis, the US defence secretary, later expressed support for the diplomatic track in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“The defence department supports fully Secretary Tillerson’s efforts to find a diplomatic solution, but remains focused on the defence of the United States and our allies,” Mattis said.
In his debut speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatens the US or any of its allies, deriding Kim as “Rocket Man” and warning he is on a “suicide mission.”
Kim responded by calling Trump a “mentally deranged dotard”.
Meanwhile, the US government has approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of the advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile defence system for $15bn, the state department said on Friday.
“This sale furthers US national security and foreign policy interests, and supports the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of Iranian and other regional threats,” a statement said.
The green light for the deal, which Saudi Arabia has long sought, came one day after King Salman met Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and signed a preliminary agreement to look at Moscow’s S-400 air defence system.
The THAAD — which has already been supplied to Saudi Arabia’s neighbours Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — is one of the most capable defensive missile batteries in the US arsenal and comes equipped with an advanced radar system.
Its recent deployment by the US military in South Korea to protect against any North Korean strike drew protests from Beijing, who feared its sensors would be able to penetrate into Chinese air space and upset the balance of power.
The state department said it would advise Congress that, in Saudi hands, the system would act to stabilise the situation in the Gulf and help defend US forces in the region and their allies, who face a growing Iranian missile capability.
“The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region,” it said.
Officials said that the sale, which can go ahead if the US Congress does not object within 30 days, should be seen as part of an overall $110bn arms package that President Donald Trump promised the Saudi kingdom during a visit in May.
“This potential sale will substantially increase Saudi Arabia’s capability to defend itself against the growing ballistic missile threat in the region,” a statement said.
“THAAD’s exo-atmospheric, hit-to-kill capability will add an upper-tier to Saudi Arabia’s layered missile defence architecture.”
The main US contractors who will profit from the sale are aerospace giant Lockheed Martin’s space systems division and defence contractor Raytheon. — Al Jazeera