President Donald Trump said Thursday that war with North Korea is not ‘inevitable’ but it’s something that ‘could happen.’
‘I would prefer not going the route of the military, but it’s something certainly that could happen,’ Trump said during an East Room news conference.
Trump boasted that the U.S. has new and beautiful military equipment but said, ‘Hopefully we’re not going to have to use it on North Korea.
‘If we do use it on North Korea, it will be a very sad day for North Korea,’ he said.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that war with North Korea is not ‘inevitable’ but it’s something that ‘could happen’
Trump gave new life to the conversation about a war with North Korea if Pyongyang doesn’t behave after a call with China’s Xi Jinping on Wednesday.
Trump told reporters as he was leaving the White House for a tax speech outside Washington, ‘We will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea.’
War is ‘certainly not our first choice,’ he said in response to a shouted question, ‘but we will see what happens.’
The administration has repeatedly said it is keeping every option on the table as it grapples with the threat from North Korea. The president’s remark is likely to stir new worries, however, that Trump is actually mulling military action.
Defense Secretary James Mattis said Sunday after a briefing with Trump that the president wanted to know what his ‘many military options’ are to deal with Kim Jong-Un and his government.
Standing in front of the White House, the United States’ top general warned Pyongyang that threats to America or its allies would be met with a ‘massive military response.’
‘We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said, we have many options to do so,’ Mattis stated.
President Donald Trump left war with North Korea on the table as option if Pyongyang doesn’t behave after a call with China’s Xi Jinping on Wednesday that the the U.S. leader described as ‘very, very frank’
Trump has spoken to several world leaders about North Korea’s illicit test on Sunday of what it claims was a hydrogen bomb.
Britain’s Theresa May and Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull were first on Trump’s call list. Yesterday, Trump spoke to Xi.
‘We had a very good phone call. It lasted for a long time,’ Trump told reporters waiting for him outside the White House ahead of his departure for North Dakota. ‘President Xi would like to do something. We’ll see whether or not he can do it.’
Trump has toggled between praise for the Chinese leader, who he met for the first time this year shortly after taking office, and contempt for the Communist Party’s posturing on North Korea.
Xi’s government is in favor of a denuclearized North Korea, and it has agreed to the implementation some sanctions. It’s said to have rejected harsher punishments on Kim because it is concerned about destabilization of the country’s ruling government.
The U.S. says it does not want regime change in North Korea. It just wants the 33-year-old Kim, who ascended to supreme leader in 2011, to give up his quickly accelerating nuclear program.
China has further noted that it will take an economic hit if it commerce with North Korea, however.
Four-fifths of North Korea’s economy comes from trade with China. The trade relationship was worth $5.2 billion to China in 2015, before more aggressive sanctions kicked in, data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency shows.
Comparatively, China and the U.S. had a nearly $650 billion trade relationship in 2016, according to the U.S. government.
Trump threatened Sunday to sanction any country that does business with North Korea in a drastic move to cut off Kim’s funds.
‘The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea,’ he tweeted.
Trump told reporters as he was leaving the White House for a tax speech outside Washington, ‘We will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea.’ He’s seen boarding Marine One just after
Trump is unlikely to move forward with the proposal that would affect not only China but Mexico, Brazil and Germany, according to the New York Times.
He could try to exact pressure on China through targeted sanctions, though, experts have said. State-run banks and large corporations with close ties to the government could show up next on the Treasury Department’s list.
Trump did not say in brief comments to reporters outside the White House whether the topic came up.
‘We will not be putting up with what’s happening in North Korea,’ the president declared after he was asked to comment on the conversation. ‘I believe that President Xi agrees with me 100 percent. He doesn’t want to see what’s happening there, either.’
Trump added, ‘We had a very, very frank and very strong phone call.’
Before he turned to leave, a reporter asked Trump if he was considering military action in North Korea.
‘We’re going to see what happens. We’ll see what happens. Certainly, that’s not our first choice, but we will see what happens. Thank you very much,’ the president stated.
He told a second set of reporters later, as he was about to take off for North Dakota on Air Force One, ‘We had a very good conversation with President Xi of China. It lasted for about 45 minutes.
‘He’s very much in favor of the denuke of North Korea, and we’re talking about different things. We have some things — we’re going to be talking again soon, and we’ll see how that works out,’ he said.
Trump and Xi are likely to sit down for a bilateral talk later this month at the United Nations. World leaders are scheduled to be in New York for the summit the third week in September.