Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, making his first visit to Vietnam, says the U.S. owes the former foe a debt of gratitude for siding with the United States against North Korea.
“Have to pay my respects there and thank them for their support,” Mattis said to reporters traveling with him Wednesday. “They have been supporting the United Nations sanctions at some cost to them, and so we appreciate the leadership on that leading by example and stepping up.”
Mattis said Vietnam has been abiding by the sanctions designed to exert economic pressure on North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un even though that means giving up a convenient source of cheap energy.
“DPRK sells coal very cheaply,” Mattis said. “So, when you say you’re not going to trade with somebody nearby, I mean there’s a cost there.”
Asked why the United States is so insistent that it cannot live with a nuclear-armed North Korea when it has accepted that other countries such as China, Pakistan, India and Israel have nuclear arsenals, Mattis said North Korea’s flouting of international norms and sanctions, as well as the fact that a state of war still exists between the two Koreas, make North Korea a different case.
“The Korean Peninsula, due to its unique circumstance, the fact that there’s been no peace treaty, just an armistice, this is not a place where the international community can tolerate nuclear weapons, OK?” he said, citing the unity of the United Nations and what he called the “broadly-based assessment” of the international community.
“It’s not just The United States, it’s not just China, it’s not just Russia, it’s not just Japan, it’s not just ROK, not just the nations on the U.N. Security Council. It’s a very broad appreciation of the situation.”
Mattis, a noted scholar of history and military strategy, was asked earlier in the trip for his thoughts on the lessons of the Vietnam War, in particular the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, a key turning point in the war that most historians see as a tactical victory but strategic loss for the U.S.
Mattis, who never served in Vietnam, said he hasn’t given it enough thought because he’s focused on the current situation.
“I have friends who fought in the Tet Offensive,” Mattis said Monday. “Let me think about it and I’ll come back to you.”
Asked again on the second leg of his trip, before landing in Hanoi, Mattis again begged off.
“This is in our past, and we respect our past. Both our nations do. But we both look to the future,” Mattis said.
