Trump and North Korea: A Looming Foreign Policy Crisis
As I have written before, the North Koreans are serious about building a nuclear deterrent and we are not serious about stopping them.
.. He figured Washington actually wanted Pyongyang to have nuclear weapons so it could tighten its alliances with South Korea and Japan.
.. North Korea has methodically plotted and implemented a strategy of building missiles and warheads using the political shield of China
.. Sunday’s launch of a new but short-range ballistic missile able only to reach South Korea and Japan may have been the least provocative provocation that North Koreans could devise.
.. There will be a price to pay, of course. In the near-term, it may require lifting sanctions, eventually replacing the temporary armistice ending the Korean War with a permanent peace treaty, signifying the end of enmity and of what the North Koreans call Washington’s “hostile policy.”
.. we may be on the cusp of the Trump administration’s first major foreign policy crisis, with last Sunday’s missile test only the first in a series of missiles and nuclear weapons tests. Unless Washington quickly formulates a strategy for dealing with Pyongyang — that includes not only sanctions and protecting our allies but diplomatic outreach to the North — it is going to be a rough ride.