State Dept: All North Korean WMDs Violate UN Resolutions

Trump previously said he doesn't view North Korean tests as a violation

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.

Author: Jason Ditz

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.