The US strategy for North Korea remains “all options are on the table,” according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, who today noted that the top priority for US efforts are the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
How the US intends to get to denuclearization is another matter, however. Huckabee-Sanders says that talks are “not the current focus,” which is putting it mildly since President Trump has presented any suggestion of direct diplomacy as “appeasement.”
In recent months the US engagement has been increasing sanctions against North Korea and a growing military buildup along their frontier. On top of that President Trump has refused to rule out attacking North Korea, saying only “we’ll see.”
On top of that, South Korea’s defense minister has proposed deploying US tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea, and US officials aren’t ruling that out. This would be the direct opposite of trying to denuclearize the peninsula, but is very much in keeping with talk of attacking North Korea first.
It’s abundantly clear what’s it all about: weapons sale.
Hard to ignore the profit motive with Trump…. Still better, in my mind than trying to beat the boys ala hilllary…
:Lead by example usa-Get your own nukes out of korea and sup(port) your troops…
Bring them home to rebuild after the hurricanes.
Just to put things into perspective …
The US Defense-Spy-industrial-complex has a budget of over $1 Trillion a year.
FEMA is saying that the $1 Billion allocated to help Americans devastated by disasters has already been spent with the money already allocated to Harvey and Irma.
Just so you know what’s important and who isn’t important to the deep-state beltway crowd that runs the country.
No. If your N Korea you would have to be a fool to give up your nukes. It’s your only defense against what happened in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and on and on.
oh yeah, North Korea is doing so much better with their nukes. 50 years without them and US never invaded. Months of showing off nukes and the US is literally one action away from wiping them off the map. It’s obvious they’ve made the right decision, yep.. ok.
What about Israel… Did they make the right decision to Bcum a nuclear weapons microstate…? Just a matter of time and techno/scientific savvy till every 1 with a basement can get 1… just like Dynamite… Yes it will be longer……but its inevitable… Like death.. Well unless the whole show blows…. Better to work out all these disputes now B4 every kid has 1.
Yes, 50 years of us minding our own business, not having yearly simulated war games and never calling for regime change. In 2002 Bush declared NK to be a part of the axis of evil along with Iraq and Iran. We know what happened to Iraq. We have been pushing for regime change(war)with Iran despite the fact that they have agreed to the nuke deal. His decision to show off his nukes was made for him.
I was stanchly against the Iraq War, Desert Storm, Syria, Libya, all of it. None of that means the North Koreans are better off building a nuclear arsenal. So stop changing the subject.
Nice of you to volunteer the North Korean people as martyrs. Deterrence is the only thing my government respects. Sadly.
When a government takes all options off the table except for war, then deterrence is the only left to keep them from killing you.
The North Korean people are a problem unto themselves – and will be held responsible for their actions.
You being against “all of it” is irrelevant. North Korea thinking that having nukes might deter us from attacking and demanding regime change isn’t. I didn’t say North Korea was better off but only what has happened in similar situations makes their choice of keeping nukes understandable.
They’re still alive. Unlike Saddam and Ghadafi.
Remember what the Indians always said. The Great White Chief speaks with a forked tongue. The ghosts of Saddam and Ghadafi would add that if you trust them even a little and then disarm searching for less conflict, then soon you are dead.
Correct– DPRK won’t give up its nukes. It’s even scared the US! Not many countries get away with that but North Korea probably will. The US won’t attack because the cost would be too high, even w/o nukes. Seoul (ten million people) would be destroyed, China would enter, etc. The US has screwed the pooch yet again. The losses keep rising.
How about de-nuclearizing the only nation that’s ever used an atomic bomb to kill civilians, and which still regularly threatens to nuke other countries?
Bring our men and women home. Without the tripwire, South Korea would not be acting this big and bad — and North Korea would still be an agricultural country on the way to industrial revolution. Instead we have an Amish style society with horses and plows developing nuclear weapons! And South Korea still not quite getting it. As Steve Bannon succinctly put it, in any attack on North Korea — Seul would be wiped out with conventional weapons alone. And the war obsessed neocon twitching for death and destruction anywhere anytime — need to be reminded that their money may not be that safe — poking Bear and the Dragon at the same time can have funny effect on their self assured world.