The long term is worrisome
Significantly, the sanctions were supported by Russia and China, North Korea’s closest ally, and they targeted some of the country’s biggest exports, including coal.
The UN vote was in response to the country’s accelerating progress in developing a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the American mainland. But that was then, and this is now, thanks largely due to provocative remarks uttered a few days later by Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Trump took a break from his 17-day vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., to issue a warning to North Korea in language never heard from an American president in the nuclear age:
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States . . . They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”
Trump’s remarks echoed the speech 72 years ago this week by president Harry S. Truman. In 1945, he announced that the U.S. had dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, warning that if the Japanese did not surrender, “they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” But, according to Trump’s aides, his own remarks last Tuesday were ad-libbed. And they caught everyone by surprise, including America’s allies in the region.
There was no indication Trump was intentionally invoking history or seeking any other strategic aim. His secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, who was also caught flat-footed, claimed that Trump wanted to speak in a way that Kim Jong Un would understand. But that was widely dismissed as after-the-fact nonsense.
By most inside accounts, Trump said what he said because he could — and he wanted to. There was absolutely nothing profoundly strategic in his outburst.
So what happens now? Within a day of Trump’s remarks, North Korea called his bluff and threatened missile strikes near Guam, where the U.S. has several military bases.
In the short term, Trump appears to have been reduced to more bluster. In a Twitter message Wednesday morning, Trump boasted that the U.S. nuclear arsenal — which he has frequently dismissed as “obsolete” — is now “far stronger and more powerful than ever before.”
In fact, that is untrue. Since Trump assumed office, he has done nothing to improve the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It was president Barack Obama who actually initiated the current “modernization” program.
But it is the long term that is most worrisome. Among other things, Trump’s latest turmoil helps explain the results of a newly released Pew Research international survey of 37 nations. The survey shows how much the American image in the world has fallen because of Trump’s leadership. Among those surveyed, only 22 per cent of people have confidence that Trump will do the right thing when it comes to international affairs. With Obama at the end of his presidency, an enormous 64 per cent expressed confidence in how he directed America’s role in the world.
Amazingly, both China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin received slightly higher marks than Trump. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel received almost twice as much support as Trump.
In terms of North Korea itself, Trump’s remarks this week were also a reminder to America’s allies in Asia that the U.S. government is deeply divided about how to handle North Korea.
The bitter palace intrigue in the Trump administration is out in the open. Some elements support direct talks with North Korea; others don’t. Some see China as the problem. Others see China as the only solution.
The fabled “Trump Generals” are urging one approach, while the hard-right ideologues led by senior adviser Steve Bannon are arguing the opposite.
Meanwhile, President Trump plays golf, tweets and ad-libs.
No, this has not been a good week in the history of the world.