President tells U.S. not to hit North unilaterally

SEOUL — With his public alarmed by President Trump’s recent threats to North Korea, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea issued an unusually blunt rebuke to the United States on Tuesday, warning that any unilateral military action against the North over its nuclear weapons program would be intolerable.

“No one should be allowed to decide on a military action on the Korean Peninsula without South Korean agreement,” Moon said in a nationally televised speech.

As a candidate for the presidency, Moon, a liberal who took office in May, said he would “say no to the Americans” if necessary. But he has aligned South Korea more closely with its military ally than many had expected. Though he suspended the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system opposed by China, he reversed that decision last month after North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles.

But Trump’s threat to bring “fire and fury” to North Korea, along with other statements from U.S. officials about the possibility of war, has unnerved many South Koreans and put pressure on Moon to live up to his campaign promise. “Our government will do everything it can to prevent war from breaking out,” he said in his speech Tuesday.

Moon’s pushback was the latest indication that Trump’s unorthodox approach to foreign policy, coupled with Pyongyang’s rapid progress toward its goal of nuclear missiles that can reach the mainland U.S., was putting new strain on the long-standing alliance. And it underscored how Trump’s volatile language is sowing division with a key ally.

Since the 1950-53 Korean War, South Koreans have grown used to bellicose rhetoric from North Korea. But they had never seen a U.S. president taunt the North with similar language.

“The Americans had always been an ally who would prevent, not start, war on the Korean Peninsula,” said Kim Ji-woon, a college student attending a rally on Monday in Seoul. “With his trash war talk, Trump makes me wonder what’s the use of the alliance.” Choe Sang-hun is a New York Times writer.