{"id":1890,"date":"2017-08-09T05:29:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T12:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=1890"},"modified":"2017-08-09T05:29:14","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T12:29:14","slug":"trump-threatens-fire-and-fury-against-north-korea-if-it-endangers-u-s-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=1890","title":{"rendered":"“Trump Threatens \u2018Fire and Fury\u2019 Against North Korea if It Endangers U.S.”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Peter Baker and Choe Sang-Hun, Aug. 9, 2017<\/p>\n

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. \u2014 President Trump threatened on Tuesday to unleash \u201cfire and fury\u201d against North Korea<\/a> if it endangered the United States, as tensions with the isolated and impoverished nuclear-armed state escalated into perhaps the most serious foreign policy challenge yet of his administration.<\/p>\n

In chilling language that evoked the horror of a nuclear exchange, Mr. Trump sought to deter North Korea<\/a> from any actions that would put Americans at risk. But it was not clear what specifically would cross his line. Administration officials have said that a pre-emptive military strike, while a last resort, is among the options they have made available to the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,\u201d Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is spending much of the month on a working vacation. \u201cThey will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to North Korea\u2019s volatile leader, Kim Jong-un<\/a>, Mr. Trump said, \u201cHe has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said, they will be met with fire and fury, and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undaunted, North Korea warned several hours later that it was considering a strike that would create \u201can enveloping fire\u201d around Guam, the western Pacific island where the United States operates a critical Air Force base. In recent months, American strategic bombers from Guam\u2019s Andersen Air Force Base have flown over the Korean Peninsula in a show of force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill only the U.S. have option called \u2018preventive war\u2019 as is claimed by it?\u201d the Strategic Force of the North\u2019s Korean People\u2019s Army, or K.P.A., said in a statement. \u201cIt is a daydream for the U.S. to think that its mainland is an invulnerable Heavenly kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. should clearly face up to the fact that the ballistic rockets of the Strategic Force of the K.P.A. are now on constant standby, facing the Pacific Ocean and pay deep attention to their azimuth angle for launch,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson played down the threat. \u201cI think Americans should sleep well at night<\/a>, have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump\u2019s stark comments went well beyond the firm but measured language<\/a> typically preferred by American presidents in confronting North Korea, and indeed seemed almost to echo the bellicose words used by Mr. Kim. Whether that message was mainly a bluff or an authentic expression of intent, it instantly scrambled the diplomatic equation in one of the world\u2019s most perilous regions.<\/p>\n

Supporters suggested that Mr. Trump was trying to get Mr. Kim\u2019s attention in a way that the North Korean leader would understand, while critics expressed concern that the American president could stumble into a war with devastating consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a more dangerous moment than faced by Trump\u2019s predecessors,\u201d said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit group in Washington. \u201cThe normal nuanced diplomatic rhetoric coming out of Washington hasn\u2019t worked in persuading the Kim regime of American resolve. This language underscores that the most powerful country in the world has its own escalatory and retaliatory options.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said it would be counterproductive. \u201cPresident Trump is not helping the situation with his bombastic comments,\u201d she said in a statement. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, also took exception. \u201cAll it\u2019s going to do is bring us closer to some kind of serious confrontation,\u201d he told KTAR News radio.<\/p>\n

In Guam, Governor Eddie Baza Calvo played down the North\u2019s threat to the island<\/a> in a video address on Wednesday. He said his administration had been in touch with the White House and U.S. military commanders and that there was \u201cno change in the threat level resulting from North Korea events.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Korea has accelerated its progress toward a working nuclear-tipped missile force since Mr. Trump, who has vowed not to let that happen, took office. Last month, the North successfully tested<\/a> for the first time an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the continental United States.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday<\/a> that American intelligence agencies had concluded that North Korea had miniaturized a warhead that could fit on top of one of its missiles. The Japanese government also said in an annual threat assessment on Tuesday that \u201cit is possible that North Korea has already achieved the miniaturization of nuclear weapons<\/a> and has acquired nuclear warheads.\u201d<\/p>\n

But experts said the main problem for North Korea is not miniaturization; the bombs are already judged small enough to fit on a ballistic missile, as a famous picture of Mr. Kim<\/a> with an odd warhead resembling a disco ball seemed to make clear. The real test is whether a warhead can survive the intense heat of re-entry as it plunges through the atmosphere from space, a hurdle North Korea is not believed to have overcome.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Security Council<\/a> unanimously adopted a new sanctions resolution<\/a> against North Korea over the weekend, the eighth since the country conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. Backers of the resolution said the new sanctions would cut North Korea\u2019s meager annual export revenue by about a third, impeding its ability to raise cash for its weapons programs.<\/p>\n

The sanctions ban the import of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood from North Korea. They also prohibit United Nations member nations from hosting any additional workers from the North above their current levels. Washington called the restrictions \u201cthe most stringent set of sanctions on any country in a generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But strong doubts remain over how rigorously China<\/a> and Russia<\/a>, the North\u2019s two neighboring allies, will enforce the sanctions.<\/p>\n

Even before Mr. Trump\u2019s comments, North Korea\u2019s militant response to the sanctions on Tuesday was the strongest indication yet that it could conduct another nuclear or missile test, as it has often done in response to past United Nations sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPacks of wolves are coming in attack to strangle a nation,\u201d the North Korean statement said. \u201cThey should be mindful that the D.P.R.K.\u2019s strategic steps accompanied by physical action will be taken mercilessly with the mobilization of all its national strength,\u201d it added, using the initials for the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump\u2019s \u201cfire and fury\u201d response echoed the kind of language the North Koreans themselves have used in the past. In the last few years, North Korean officials and the government news agency have repeatedly warned the United States and South Korea<\/a> against any pre-emptive attack, with \u201csea of fire\u201d a favorite phrase.<\/p>\n

At one point, North Korea vowed that \u201ceverything will be reduced to ashes and flames the moment the first attack is unleashed\u201d; at another, it vowed to \u201cturn Washington, the stronghold of American imperialists and the nest of evil, and its followers, into a sea of fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, after the United Nations vote, North Korea\u2019s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said, \u201cThe day the United States dares tease our nation with a nuclear weapon and sanctions, the mainland United States will be catapulted into an unimaginable sea of fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mr. Trump\u2019s statement is among the most militant a president has made about North Korea, it may have been aimed as much at Beijing as at Pyongyang. By discussing military options, the administration may be trying to convince China and its president, Xi Jinping, that the status quo is dangerous because it risks war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be a message to Xi Jinping that you have to be doing more than just sanctions at the U.N.,\u201d said Joseph S. Nye Jr., a Harvard scholar who once ran the American government\u2019s National Intelligence Council. \u201cIt may be a very rational, thought-out message,\u201d rather than an emotional outburst, he added.<\/p>\n

But after so many warnings of a trade war with China and other belligerent statements, Mr. Trump\u2019s threat will probably be interpreted by Mr. Xi as \u201canother thumping-the-table\u201d exercise, said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess Xi would not believe it as more than 30 to 40 percent true,\u201d Mr. Shi said of the possibility that Mr. Trump would unleash a nuclear strike on North Korea.<\/p>\n

While Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has kept the door open for talks<\/a> with North Korea during his travels in the region, other administration officials have said Mr. Trump is being presented with options for war. \u201cThe president has been very clear about it,\u201d Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the national security adviser, said in an interview aired on MSNBC<\/a> last weekend. \u201cHe said he\u2019s not going to tolerate North Korea being able to threaten the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

General McMaster added, however, that the administration would first explore \u201cwhat can we do to make sure we exhaust our possibilities, and exhaust our other opportunities to accomplish this very clear objective of denuclearization of the peninsula short of war.\u201d<\/p>\n

In South Korea, some conservative politicians and analysts have called for the reintroduction of American tactical nuclear weapons to establish a \u201cbalance of terror\u201d against the North. The United States withdrew nuclear weapons from the South in the early 1990s, but it occasionally sends nuclear-capable bombers and submarines in exercises.<\/p>\n

But President Moon Jae-in on Monday warned against military action. \u201cAbove all, President Moon emphasized that South Korea can never accept a war erupting again on the Korean Peninsula,\u201d his office said in a statement describing a 56-minute phone call with Mr. Trump. \u201cHe stressed that the North Korean nuclear issue must be resolved in a peaceful, diplomatic manner through a close coordination between South Korea and the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Baker and Choe Sang-Hun, Aug. 9, 2017 BRIDGEWATER, N.J. \u2014 President Trump threatened on Tuesday to unleash \u201cfire and fury\u201d against North Korea if it endangered the United States, as tensions with the isolated and impoverished nuclear-armed state escalated into perhaps the most serious foreign policy challenge yet of his administration. In chilling language […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}