President Trump instructed top national security officials to construct a plan to pull all U.S. military families from South Korea shortly before the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, a new report says.
The command was given to then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who ordered the National Security Council to write a presidential memorandum directing military dependents to evacuate South Korea, CNN reports.
The administration’s top national security staffers were anxious the instructions would signal to North Korea that the U.S. was laying the groundwork for war.
The memo was then sent to White House chief of staff John Kelly, who worked with Defense Secretary James Mattis to persuade Trump that instead he should advise military personnel headed to South Korea that they could no longer bring their families.
Both proposals were never executed, but either would have sent a message to North Korea that the U.S. was looking to fight, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and U.S. ambassador to South Korea Christopher Hill said.
“You bet it would be seen as a precursor to military action,” Hill said, according to CNN.
The report comes after North Korea warned the U.S. Tuesday that next month’s meeting with Trump in Singapore could be in jeopardy, due to “provocative military disturbances with South Korea,” per the North Korean state news agency.
The Trump administration responded Tuesday by saying military exercises in South Korea would continue and that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was fully aware of the training sessions.
“Kim Jong Un had said previously that he understood the need and the utility of the United States and the Republic of Korea continuing in its joint exercises,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
“They’re exercises that are legal, they’re planned well, well in advance. We have not heard anything from that government or the government of South Korea to indicate that we would not continue conducting these exercises or that we would not continue planning for our meeting and President Trump and Kim Jong Un next month,” she added.
