US President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter again on Monday evening to promise North Korea would not develop a nuclear missile capable of reaching US territory.
His comments come a day after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, appeared to try to put pressure on Trump by announcing his country is in the “final stages” of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
“North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the US,” Trump tweeted. “It won’t happen!”
Although Washington has repeatedly vowed that it would never accept North Korea as a nuclear state, Trump has not previously clearly stated his policy on the isolated Stalinist state.
The Republican billionaire has already upended precedent by routinely taking to Twitter since his election to lambast critics and issue statements, often about national security issues, that have sent analysts scrambling to divine what they may mean for US policy once he takes office on January 20.
Last month he launched a solo bid to restart the Cold War arms race, tweeting that the United States must “greatly strengthen and expand” its nuclear capabilities.
He has also angered China by tweeting accusations of military expansionism and currency manipulation. But he will need Beijing, Pyongyang’s closest ally, to deal with North Korea’s muscle-flexing.
He appeared to complicate that prospect, however, with another tweet on Monday evening.
“China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea,” he tweeted. “Nice!”
In a 30-minute televised New Year’s speech on Sunday, Kim said Pyongyang had “soared as a nuclear power,” adding that it is now a “military power of the East that cannot be touched by even the strongest enemy.”
Although he did not make a specific reference to the incoming Trump administration, he called on Washington to make a “resolute decision to withdraw its anachronistic hostile North Korea policy.”
Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realizing its full nuclear ambitions, especially as it has never successfully test-fired an ICBM.
However, North Korea carried out two nuclear tests and numerous missile launches last year in pursuit of its oft-stated goal of developing a weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead.
Thae Yong-Ho, North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to Britain, who defected to the South in August, has said Kim was planning a “prime time” nuclear weapons push in 2017 to take advantage of leadership transitions in Washington and Seoul.
Trump says it won’t happen, so I guess it won’t. The power of the tweet.
I seem to remember successive US Presidents saying that North Korea would never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. Hmmm, on the ICBMs, is this just another of those promises, another Red Line? More Red Lines to be scrubbed out by the targets of the US Red Lines.
But with all of the talk about what Trump is going to do and not going to do, what ever happened to the US Constitution and it´s vaunted checks and balances? Is Trump a dictator now? Are the checks and balances, much touted, now with his Presidency, non existant? What about The Supreme Court, Congress and The Senate? Is Trump now able to dictate to them much like Kim does to the North Korean Government? If one were to believe the Main Stream Media, and it´s current hysteria over Trump. you would think he seized power in a military coup and is now Dictator Supremo. So which is it New York Times and Washington Post, Huffington Post and Yahoo News, do you still live in a Constitutional, Democratic Republic, or has that all dissappeared down the drain with Trump´s election? Apparently Trump is a lot smarter than the MSM gave him credit for, He just became Emporer of the USA instead of just a lowly President. How is that for genious?
We keep baiting the North Koreans trying to get them to do something so we can invade. The only reason North Korea and Iran want nuclear weapons is so they can not be invaded.