Pence says ‘era of strategic patience’ is over
PANMUNJOM, Korea, Republic Of U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence says the “era of strategic patience is over” with North Korea, expressing impatience with the willingness of the North Korean regime to move toward ridding itself of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Pence tells reporters near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea that President Donald Trump is hopeful that China will use their “extraordinary levers” to pressure the North to abandon their weapons.
He says there was a “period of patience” over the years but “the era of strategic patience is over.” He says the Trump administration hopes their clarity will be received in North Korea, adding the U.S. and its allies will achieve its objectives through “peaceable means or ultimately by whatever means are necessary” to protect South Korea and stabilize the region.
Pence visited a military base near the DMZ, Camp Bonifas, for a briefing with military leaders and to meet with American troops stationed there.
His 10-day tour of Asia comes as tensions grow in the wake of North Korea's latest missile test.
Pence has called North Korea's failed missile launch a "provocation," and President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that China is working with the U.S. on the “North Korea problem.”
But while the clouds of war might seem to be gathering, in Pyongyang — where war would mean untold horrors, where neighbourhoods could be reduced to rubble and tens of thousands of civilians could be killed — few people seem to care much at all.
On Sunday, the city’s zoo was crowded, playgrounds were full of children and families strolled along downtown sidewalks speckled with the falling blossoms of apricot trees. At the city’s annual Kimilsungia flower show — held to celebrate Saturday’s 105th anniversary of the birth of North Korea's founding ruler, Kim Il Sung, and the purple orchid named for him — thousands crowded around the displays, many using cellphones to take photos of friends and family.
In a country where the propaganda is all-encompassing, and where the same family has held power for three generations, every display mixed bright flowers with reminders of Kim Il Sung or the nation that his grandson, Kim Jong Un, now rules.
So there were dioramas of Kim Il Sung’s birthplace, photos of him meeting foreign leaders, paintings of new housing developments — and models of missiles.
And there was Chong Ok An, a retiree pushing her way through the crowds with her family.
“We’re not afraid,” she said. “As long as we have Marshall Kim Jong Un we can win any fight.”
Her response reflected the phrasing of North Korean propaganda, as well as the reality that every person here has heard talk of war for decades. The Kim family has entrenched its rule by portraying the country as being relentlessly under siege, leaving its people unable to distinguish between daily hyperbole and the reality of an increasingly tense situation.
The same unending hyperbole has affected South Koreans as well. They have heard North Korean warnings of their destruction for so long that the threats barely even register.
While interest in North Korea spikes immediately after a missile launch, within hours internet search traffic is again dominated by TV comedy shows, taxes and real estate.