John Bolton accused North Korea’s recent tests of short-range missiles
of being a violation of UN Security Council resolutions, but on Monday
President Trump said he views the tests differently. Reporters are
asking the State Department to reconcile this into a single position.
State spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said that “the entire North Korean WMD program is in conflict with the UN Security Council resolutions,” saying that the US was focused on ending the WMD program.
The short range missile tests don’t appear to have had anything to do
with WMDs, as Trump pointed out. Bolton argued that they were ballistic
missiles, while the State Department said they have yet to announce if
they think they were ballistic missiles or not.
Though President Trump has made clear that he doesn’t consider the tests
a big deal at all, an doesn’t want to do anything about them, other US
officials seem keen to keep the topic up for discussion, and not endorse
the president’s position specifically.
State Dept: All North Korean WMDs Violate UN Resolutions
Trump previously said he doesn't view North Korean tests as a violation
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
Join the Discussion!
We welcome thoughtful and respectful comments. Hateful language, illegal content, or attacks against Antiwar.com will be removed.
For more details, please see our Comment Policy.
