With Donald Trump engineering an unnecessary crisis for hundreds of thousands of young Americans, Texas and Louisiana still bailing out from record floods, and nature pointing a second act at millions more as Category 5 Hurricane Irma moves across the Atlantic, it would be nice if there was something of a break on the foreign policy front. But of course, Trump chose to both pardon ex-Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and end DACA in the midst of a foreign policy crisis—one that brings with it the most serious threat of a nuclear conflict in decades.
Over the weekend, North Korea tested its latest nuclear device. The size and exact nature of the device remains in question, but the explosion was undoubtedly larger than previous tests by North Korea and represent a significant advance. North Korea claims that the blast was generated by a hydrogen bomb sized to fit one of its new ICBMs, but neither of those facts has been confirmed.
Since then, South Korea has conducted a live fire exercise simulating destruction of North Korea’s nuclear facilities, and reached an agreement to increase the range and destructive power of its own missiles.
South Korea’s presidential office also said Washington and Seoul have agreed to remove bilaterally agreed warhead restrictions on South Korean missiles, which would allow the South to develop more powerful weapons that would boost its pre-emptive strike capabilities against the North.
There have also been calls for South Korea to build nuclear weapons of its own—leaving both ends of the Korean peninsula loaded with nuclear missiles.
Donald Trump has proposed to put pressure on North Korea through a trade war that would affect the largest trading relationships on the planet. It’s unclear that this would help at all, with any abrupt change in policy possibly triggering an attack from a regime placed in a “use it or lose it” situation. Trump has also frustrated South Korea by tying security to a renegotiation of a trade deal.
Meanwhile, North Korea is promising “more gift packages” for the United States in the form of bombs and missiles.
Han Tae Song, ambassador of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the United Nations in Geneva, was addressing the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament two days after his country detonated its sixth nuclear test explosion.
“I am proud of saying that just two days ago on the third of September, DPRK successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test for intercontinental ballistic rocket under its plan for building a strategic nuclear force,” Han told the Geneva forum.
“The recent self-defence measures by my country, DPRK, are a ‘gift package’ addressed to none other than the U.S.,” Han said.
North Korea has reportedly begun moving another ICBM into position for a further test.
South Korea’s Asia Business Daily, citing an unidentified source, reported that North Korea had been observed moving a rocket that appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) towards its west coast.
The rocket started moving on Monday and was spotted moving only at night to avoid surveillance, the newspaper said. South Korea’s defence ministry, which warned on Monday that North Korea was ready to launch an ICBM at any time, said it was not able to confirm the report. ..
But while many allies are urging the U.S. to talk with North Korea, some in South Korea are less certain.
South Korea elected a new president, Moon Jae-in, in May, and Trump has been frustrated that Moon is not willing to accept the initial U.S. trade demands, several trade experts said. Foreign leaders at first worked hard to build strong relations with Trump, but there has been a marked change in recent months as numerous leaders have stood up to his brand of nationalism. ...
Trump is “playing with fire,” said Gary Schmitt, co-director of the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. “There is a new president in South Korea whose instincts probably are to be probably not as pro-America as his predecessor, and now you are putting him in a situation where he has to react. In fact, what you need now is as much cooperation as possible.”
In any case, it doesn’t seem as if Trump is in a mood to talk. According to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders …
“Now is not the time to spend a lot of time focused on talking with North Korea.”