In North Korea’s state newspaper this week, the Kim Jong Un regime warned the U.S. that it was prepared to unleash a devastating preemptive attack against its enemies. Days after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. was looking at all available options to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear weapons program, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper published a direct threat to the United States and its allies.
“In the case of our super-mighty preemptive strike being launched, it will completely and immediately wipe out not only U.S. imperialists’ invasion forces in South Korea and its surrounding areas but the U.S. mainland and reduce them to ashes,” the paper said.
World-destroying threats from North Korea are nothing new, but the rhetoric coming from the Kim regime these days is being matched by stern warnings from the United States.
In remarks to reporters on Wednesday, Secretary Tillerson said the U.S. was willing to negotiate with North Korea…but only on our terms.
“We’re reviewing all the status of North Korea, both in terms of state sponsorship of terrorism as well as the other ways in which we can bring pressure on the regime in Pyongyang to re-engage with us, but re-engage with us on a different footing than past talks have been held,” Tillerson said.
And while on his Asian tour, Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration had turned the page on Obama’s North Korean policies. “The era of strategic patience is over,” Pence said.
While the world holds its breath to see if this kind of rhetoric is the harbinger of war, the Trump administration seems to be turning its focus to Iran. Secretary Tillerson also said Wednesday that the State Department was going to conduct a comprehensive review of U.S. policies and agreements with Iran, and he linked that review to the intolerable situation in North Korea. Both he and Trump have said that North Korea’s path to the bomb could be easily replicated by the Iranians.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to bring an end to the endless foreign wars that have bled the U.S. dry in recent decades and left thousands of American soldiers dead and/or permanently injured as a result of battle. Now many of his supporters are beginning to wonder if Trump’s commitment to putting “America first” has been compromised by Washington insiders.
In any event, war hasn’t started yet. Hopefully, Trump’s military actions and rhetoric will force China and North Korea (and Iran) to rethink their provocations. If not, we could be in for a rough summer.
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