This seems like one of these incidents where Trump says something outlandish to be funny or elicit a reaction and the media runs with it like he is seriously going to do it:
Behind closed doors in 2017, President Donald Trump discussed the idea of using a nuclear weapon against North Korea and suggested he could blame a U.S. strike against the communist regime on another country, according to a new section of a book that details key events of his administration.
Trump’s alleged comments, reported for the first time in a new afterword to a book by New York Times Washington correspondent Michael Schmidt, came as tensions between the U.S. and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un escalated, alarming then-White House chief of staff John Kelly.
NBC News
You can read more at the link.
Considering the nuclear threats the Kim regime has continued to make against South Korea it makes sense to plan for how to respond to their use:
South Korea and the United States plan to stage a combined military exercise next month under the scenario of use of a nuclear weapon by North Korea, Seoul’s defense ministry said Wednesday in its report to President Yoon Suk Yeol on major policy tasks this year.
Among other plans are holding a 11-day springtime South Korea-U.S. exercise without a break, conducting a final test of a homegrown solid-propellant space rocket and launching the country’s first military surveillance satellite.
Led by the allies’ Deterrence Strategy Committee (DSC), the discussion-based Table-Top Exercise (TTX) is set to take place in the U.S. in the latter half of February, as the two sides agreed to hold it annually at a bilateral defense ministerial meeting in November last year, according to the ministry.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Not a good look for President Yoon that he is getting out in front of the U.S. on the discussion of conducting Joint nuclear exercises:
The White House statement came hours after Biden, responding to a reporter’s question as he exited Marine One, said he was not discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea.
The president’s short denial at the White House follows Yoon’s interview with the Seoul-based Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Sunday, in which Yoon said South Korea was holding “considerably positive” discussions with the U.S. about “joint exercise concepts” related to nuclear weapons.
“Nuclear weapons are the U.S.’s, but South Korea and the U.S. should work together in planning, information sharing, exercises and training,” Yoon said.
Biden’s response prompted a spokeswoman for Yoon, Kim Eun Hye, to clarify Tuesday that the U.S. and South Korea are discussing ways to deter North Korea from using nuclear weapons, including sharing information and joint planning with concern to U.S. nuclear assets, according to a statement from the South Korean presidential office.
The reporter’s question to Biden about talks on a joint nuclear exercise lacked important context, which led the U.S. president to respond with “no,” according to Kim’s statement.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
Here is an interesting interview with President Yoon where he is advocating for joint nuclear exercises with the U.S. to off set the North Korean nuclear threat:
President Yoon Suk Yeol has said South Korea is in talks with the United States to carry out joint planning and joint exercises involving U.S. nuclear forces to counter North Korea’s nuclear threats.
In an interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper published Monday, Yoon said the idea of the U.S. providing a nuclear umbrella or extended deterrence to South Korea is not enough to reassure the South Korean public.
The interview was published a day after North Korean state media reported leader Kim Jong-un called for “an exponential increase” of his country’s nuclear arsenal, while calling South Korea “our undoubted enemy.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see how the U.S. responds to this suggestions from President Yoon. More importantly will this actually do anything to deter the Kim regime from advancing their nuclear weapons program?
I mean really what is South Korea going to do in response to a nuclear test that hasn’t already been done in the past? The only thing I see getting the Kim regime’s attention and more importantly President Emperor Xi’s attention, is if the ROK develops their own nuclear capability, which I doubt the U.S. will support. That leaves the ROK with its usual response options of show of forces which has not deterred the North Koreans:
President Yoon Suk-yeol said any new nuclear test by North Korea will be met with an international response “not seen in the past” and called on China to play a greater role to deter the North’s provocations.
Yoon made the remarks in an interview with Reuters, released Tuesday, amid growing concerns the North could conduct its seventh nuclear test after a series of recent missile launches.
Should the North forge ahead with a test, Yoon vowed a response “not seen in the past” by South Korea and its partners.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
The U.S. has made it clear once again it will not recognize North Korea as nuclear weapons state:
The United States does not and will not recognize North Korea as a nuclear weapons state as it seeks to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, a state department spokesperson said Monday.
“That is not our policy. I do not foresee that ever becoming a policy,” Ned Price told a press briefing when asked about the possibility of the U.S. ever recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It is good to see that someone is listening to what the Kim regime has been saying for years, they have no interest in denuclearizing:
Along with massive economic assistance, the normalization of diplomatic relations with the West ― particularly with the United States ― has long been viewed by countries outside of North Korea as one of the carrots that could persuade the reclusive state from seeking nuclear weapons.
Korea Times
But a former U.S. diplomat said that North Korea has no intention to get rid of its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic incentives or the normalization of diplomatic relations. Joe DeTrani said the reclusive state wants both: to normalize diplomatic relations with the West while keeping its nuclear arsenal intact.
“The North Koreans have been telling us, and certainly they’ve been telling me from 2003 to 2016, when I’ve been meeting them officially or track 1.5 meetings with a deputy foreign minister, that North Korea wants to be accepted as a nuclear weapons state and they want normal relations with the United States ― they want both,” DeTrani, a former U.S. special envoy for negotiations with North Korea, said during a session of the Korea Times Forum on the theme “New Challenges for Korea-U.S. Alliance,” at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul, Wednesday. DeTrani, now in Albuquerque, New Mexico, joined the discussion remotely.
You can read more at the link.
Here is the latest ratcheting up of tensions on the peninsula:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected an exercise of tactical nuclear operation units held in order to check and assess the “war deterrent and nuclear counterattack capability” in response to recent joint military trainings by South Korea and the United States, Pyongyang’s state media said Monday.
The drills were conducted from Sept. 25 to Oct. 9 while the South and the U.S. were staging a large-scale combined naval exercise in the waters near the peninsula involving the nuclear-powered Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The North’s military staged “ballistic missile launching drills under the simulation of loading tactical nuclear warheads,” it reported.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but once again how many times and how many different ways does the Kim regime need to tell the international community that it is not denuclearizing?
