SEOUL, South Korea — Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson ruled out on Friday opening any negotiation with North Korea
to freeze its nuclear and missile programs and said for the first time
that the Trump administration might be forced to take pre-emptive action
“if they elevate the threat of their weapons program” to an
unacceptable level.
Mr.
Tillerson’s comments in Seoul, a day before he travels to Beijing to
meet Chinese leaders, explicitly rejected any return to the bargaining
table in an effort to buy time by halting North Korea’s accelerating testing program. The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said on New Year’s Day that North Korea was in the “final stage” of preparation for the first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the United States.
The
secretary of state’s comments were the Trump administration’s first
public hint at the options being considered, and they made clear that
none involved a negotiated settlement or waiting for the North Korean
government to collapse.
“The
policy of strategic patience has ended,” Mr. Tillerson said, a
reference to the term used by the Obama administration to describe a
policy of waiting out the North Koreans, while gradually ratcheting up
sanctions and covert action.
Notes: "Strategic patience" is another useless phrase Barack made up ("leading from behind" and "negotiated peace" are others) to disguise the fact that he had no intentions of actually getting things done.
Negotiations
“can only be achieved by denuclearizing, giving up their weapons of
mass destruction,” he said — a step to which the North committed in
1992, and again in subsequent accords, but has always violated. “Only
then will we be prepared to engage them in talks.”
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