‘Military option’ would be devastating: Trump

‘Student tortured beyond belief’

WASHINGTON, Sept 27, (Agencies): President Donald Trump warned North Korea on Tuesday that any US military option would be “devastating” for Pyongyang, but said the use of force was not Washington’s first option to deal with the country’s ballistic and nuclear weapons program.

“We are totally prepared for the second option, not a preferred option,” Trump said at a White House news conference, referring to military force. “But if we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that, devastating for North Korea. That’s called the military option. If we have to take it, we will.”

Bellicose statements by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent weeks have created fears that a miscalculation could lead to action with untold ramifications, particularly since Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept 3.

Despite the increased tension, the United States has not detected any change in North Korea’s military posture reflecting an increased threat, the top US military officer said on Tuesday.

The assessment by Marine Corps General Joseph Duford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, about Pyongyang’s military stance was in contrast to a South Korean lawmaker who said Pyongyang had boosted defenses on its east coast.

“While the political space is clearly very charged right now, we haven’t seen a change in the posture of North Korean forces, and we watch that very closely,” Dunford told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his reappointment to his post.

In terms of a sense of urgency, “North Korea certainly poses the greatest threat today,” Dunford testified.

A US official speaking on the condition of anonymity said satellite imagery had detected a small number of North Korean military aircraft moving to the North’s east coast. However the official said the activity did not change their assessment of Pyongyang’s military posture.

Donald Trump on Tuesday accused North Korea of torturing a captive US student “beyond belief,” spurning pleas from allies and foes in east Asia to tone down his warlike rhetoric.

Trump urged nations to “isolate the North Korean menace” as his administration introduced new sanctions and warned that its “nuclear weapons and missile development threaten the entire word with unthinkable loss of life.”

Trump

Sanctions

The comments, in the White House Rose Garden, came after the US Treasury announced sanctions on eight North Korean banks and 26 executives.

Earlier, for the first time, Trump also publicly accused Pyongyang of abusing the late 22-year-old Otto Warmbier, an allegation likely to heighten tensions between the two nuclear powers.

Last June the Ohio native was sent home in a coma after more than a year in prison in North Korea. He died a few days later.

Aides say Trump was personally shocked and angered by Warmbier’s death, and that the government suspects mistreatment.

President Donald Trump vowed to “fix the mess” over North Korea’s nuclear program but warned any US military attack would be “devastating.” The tough talk came as Trump’s administration sought to turn up the economic pressure with new sanctions punishing North Korean banks and their workers.

As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US was still hoping for a diplomatic resolution, Trump echoed the sentiment, declaring that a military strike was “not a preferred option.” Still, Trump said the United States was “totally prepared” to pursue that route if necessary.

“If we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that. Devastating,” Trump said in a Rose Garden news conference. “If we have to take it, we will.”

The president appeared eager to push back on the notion that it was he, not North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who’s responsible for upping the rhetoric between the countries to alarming levels. And he assigned some fault for the mounting crisis to his predecessors for failing to address the North’s nuclear ambitions over many decades.

“It’s left me a mess,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll fix the mess.”

Program

Trump emphasized that world nations must act quickly to “ensure the regime’s complete denuclearization,” referring to Kim Jong Un’s government. Though the US has continued to argue publicly North Korea should give up its nuclear program, US officials and North Korea experts have said that halting or rolling back Pyongyang’s program is the more realistic outcome.

Trump spoke alongside the visiting Spanish prime minister minutes after his Treasury Department announced new sanctions targeting eight North Korean banks and 26 bank workers living abroad.

The North Korean targets mark the first use of new sanctioning powers that Trump created in an executive order he signed last week to target North Korea’s access to the international banking system. They also came as the United Nations has also recently passed its toughest sanctions package targeting North Korea.

The eight banks are all in North Korea. The Treasury Department said the 26 individuals are North Korean nationals employed by those banks. Of the 26, 19 of them live in China, while three live in Russia and two each in Libya and the United Arab Emirates.

“This is a clear message to Chinese banks: We can find these individuals, so can you,” said Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which advocates for tough sanctions on North Korea.

Trump’s executive order, signed last week as world leaders attended the UN General Assembly, also created a pathway for the US to impose so-called secondary sanctions on banks in third countries that do even legitimate business with North Korea. Those sanctions would essentially force those banks, mostly in China, to stop doing any business with North Korea or lose all access to the US financial system.

So far, the administration hasn’t explicitly used that secondary sanctions authority. But by publicly naming the North Korean banks and their workers, the US sent a signal that those banks are now considered offlimits.

A US official said anyone, including banks, that does business with the North Korean banks or workers now run the risk of being hit themselves by sanctions.