Faced with a threat from North Korea that it might soon test an intercontinental ballistic missile, US president-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter on Monday night to declare bluntly: “It won’t happen!”
Trump made his post on Twitter, where he often tests out his first thoughts on developing issues in the US and abroad, a day after young North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared that the “final stage in preparations” was under way for a test of such a missile.
Kim offered no time frame.
Photo: Reuters
ONGOING DEVELOPMENT
North Korea has routinely tested short and medium-range missiles, with some successes and many failures, but it has so far stopped short of testing a long-range missile, which could reach Guam or the west coast of the US.
“North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S.,” Trump said on Twitter, somewhat misstating Kim’s warning.
Pyongyang has already tested nuclear weapons underground — the latest threat concerned what Kim called a “test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.”
However, Kim last year boasted that the North had conducted “the first H-bomb test,” and experts have said there is no evidence for that claim.
“China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!” Trump added on Twitter.
That appeared to reflect briefings Trump has received about how Chinese leaders fear instability and collapse in the North more than the “status quo.”
Trump takes office in less than three weeks, and a test by North Korea, if it demonstrated that the missile could in fact reach US shores, would present one of the first big national security tests for his administration.
There was no immediate comment from either North or South Korea on Trump’s latest remarks.
North Korea conducted a nuclear test in the first months of the administration of US President Barack Obama, turning many White House officials against the country — and against the concept of negotiating with it.
POLITICAL PUZZLE
Early in the presidential campaign, Trump said he was willing to sit down with Kim and perhaps have a hamburger with him. However, negotiating with the North would be anathema to many US Republicans, and even Obama, who was willing to talk with the leaders of Cuba and Myanmar, refused to enter negotiations with the North unless it acknowledged that the endpoint of the talks would be a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
In his New Year’s Day speech, Kim said he would continue his country’s efforts to build a nuclear strike capability unless the US abandoned its “hostile” policy toward the North.
Some analysts have predicted that North Korea will conduct a weapons test in the coming months, taking advantage of leadership changes in both the US and South Korea.
How Trump would respond to such a provocation is a matter of great concern for South Koreans, who are also struggling with uncertainty in their domestic politics.
The South Korean National Assembly on Dec. 9 voted to impeach South Korean President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal.
If the South Korean Constitutional Court decides to formally remove her from office, the country would have a new election within months.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not