BACK FROM THE BRINK: After a week of escalating rhetoric from President Trump, every member of his national security team appears laser-focused on diplomacy, not military action to achieve the goal of a denuclearized North Korea. A “peaceful pressure campaign” is how Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson describe current efforts in a joint opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last night. “The U.S. has no interest in regime change or accelerated reunification of Korea. We do not seek an excuse to garrison U.S. troops north of the Demilitarized Zone. We have no desire to inflict harm on the long-suffering North Korean people, who are distinct from the hostile regime in Pyongyang,” Mattis and Tillerson write.
“While diplomacy is our preferred means of changing North Korea’s course of action, it is backed by military options,” the op-ed goes on. “The U.S. is willing to negotiate with Pyongyang. But given the long record of North Korea’s dishonesty in negotiations and repeated violations of international agreements, it is incumbent upon the regime to signal its desire to negotiate in good faith.”
