Tag: Donald Trump

Did media really think President Trump would confirm or deny if the military launched an electronic warfare attack against North Korea?:

President Trump is refusing to say whether the U.S. sabotaged North Korea’s launch of ballistic missile that blew up shortly after liftoff Sunday morning.

“I don’t want to comment on it,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt at Monday’s White House Easter Egg Roll.

Last month, the New York Times reported that during President Barack Obama’s last three years in office, he quietly ordered a surge in strikes against the missile launches — including the use of “electronic warfare” techniques to combat them. It’s unclear whether such a counterattack was used to sabotage Sunday’s launch.

“The approach taken in targeting the North Korean missiles has distinct echoes of the American- and Israeli-led sabotage of Iran’s nuclear program, the most sophisticated known use of a cyberweapon meant to cripple a nuclear threat,” the Times’ David Sanger and William Broad wrote in early March.

During his “Fox & Friends” interview, Trump would also not comment on what the U.S. response would be if North Korea attempted to launch another missile.

“We’ll find out,” the president said.  [Yahoo News]

This is true. https://t.co/kl8Y2X4aHM

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) April 17, 2017

Foreign policy adviser travelling with VP Pence said that if it had been a nuclear test, “other actions would have been taken by the US”.

— Bonnie Glaser / 葛来仪 (@BonnieGlaser) April 16, 2017

If history is any indication the Chinese will double-deal the US on North Korea:

I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will! U.S.A.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2017

I have no doubt that President Trump will consult with the ROK government before any preemptive strike on North Korea, the real question is how long before any strike will he consult and what influence will the ROK have on the decision?:

The U.S. Donald Trump administration must have prior consultation with Seoul before taking any confrontational actions concerning North Korea, including launching a preemptive strike, South Korean politicians said.

The politicians, including presidential candidate Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), said Seoul is directly involved in the North Korean issue, noting that any actions taken by Washington will have a direct impact on the Korean Peninsula.  (…….)

“South Korea should be the owner of North Korean issues and take the lead in dealing with them rather than letting neighboring countries such as the U.S. and China manage them,” Moon told reporters, Saturday, referring to the outcome of the summit talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“The U.S. is talking about various possibilities regarding its confrontational actions on the North. The U.S. must consult with South Korea before whatever measure it takes,” he said.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

I guess we will see in the future of this statement includes North Korea or not:

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday after summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that “tremendous progress” was made in U.S. relations with China and that “lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away.”

“We have made tremendous progress in our relationship with China” Trump said after talks with Xi at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, according to pool reports. “I think truly progress has been made,” he said, calling the relationship with China “outstanding.”

“Lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away,” Trump said.

It was unclear if the “bad problems” include North Korea.  (…….)

The strikes against Syria, which came in the middle of the state dinner Trump hosted for Xi at his Mar-a-Lago estate, could also send a message to China that the U.S. may take unilateral action unless Beijing helps rein in Pyongyang.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Trump never brings up human rights in China. That weakens his negotiating position with Xi. My take: https://t.co/pNjMeyKUJJ

— Isaac Stone Fish (@isaacstonefish) April 5, 2017

It would probably be interesting to be a fly on the wall to over hear what President Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping will discuss this weekend:

Claiming North Korea is a “matter of urgent interest” for President Trump and his administration, the official added that Trump “has been pretty clear in messaging how important it is for China to coordinate with the United States, and for China to begin exerting its considerable economic leverage to bring about a peaceful resolution to that problem.”

Such issues will come up in their discussions, the official said. “Even though we hear sometimes that China’s political influence may have diminished with North Korea, clearly its economic leverage has not,” pointing out that nearly 90 percent of Pyongyang’s external trade is with its closest ally Beijing.

The Trump administration has been suggesting a paradigm shift from previous U.S. governments on policy toward the North Korea issue, putting the Pyongyang nuclear issue as a top priority for the first time.

Trump’s administration also isn’t shy about the pressure it intends to put on China over North Korea.

In a town hall meeting with business CEOs on Tuesday, Trump said on his upcoming summit with Xi, “I’m sure we’re going to have a fantastic meeting and we’re going to talk about a lot of things, including, of course, North Korea,” which he described as “really a humanity problem.”

“China has great influence over North Korea,” Trump declared in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday.

“China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone.”

He also said that he will solve the North Korea issue if China won’t do it – and without China’s help.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

What Christopher Hill is advocating for has been tried before and does not work.  Increasing defenses in South Korea is common sense and has long been going on, working with China has also been tried and it has not stopped the North Korean nuclear or missile threats:

No good military options exist on North Korea and the best way to deal with the provocative regime is to increase cooperation with China, former U.S. nuclear negotiator with North Korea Christopher Hill said Sunday.

Talk of pre-emptive strikes against the North have gained traction after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said earlier this month that diplomacy failed to disarm the North and the United States is considering a new range of options, including military ones.

“We say ‘everything is on the table’ is because basically none of the options are particularly good options,” the former negotiator said on New York’s AM 970 radio, according to the newspaper Hill. “There are no good military options.

“We’ve done a lot on sanctions. It’s the most sanctioned country in the world. That hasn’t worked. We tried to have negotiations with them. That hasn’t worked. But I think what could work is a much better understanding between the U.S. and China,” Hill said.

He expressed concerns about the rapidly worsening threats from the North.

“In the last few years, North Korea’s threat has really grown … now we are seeing them modernize their missile arsenal, such that it’s quite likely in the near future … North Korea will have a deliverable nuclear weapon. And then the question is, what are we all going to do about that?” Hill said.

“I wouldn’t want to be Donald Trump in 2020 and have to say … we couldn’t do anything,” he said.  [Yonhap]

It seems to me that Mr. Hill should not be calling out President Trump when he could not stop the North Korean threat when he was in government.