Korea of ‘behaving very badly’

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned it may be necessary to take pre-emptive action against North Korea should their weapons program becomes a serious enough threat. China is concerned about South Korea’s use of a powerful anti-missile system, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), against North Korea, seeing it as a threat to Chinese security. And the audience for this is not the regime in North Korea.

Tillerson landed at Osan air base in South Korea from Japan and transferred to a Blackhawk helicopter for his trip to the DMZ, where he met the commander of the 28,000 United States troops stationed in the South to defend the country.

Mr Trump can not afford to alienate China in this process, even if his Tweets suggest otherwise.

Yes, when you say “Nothing is off the table”, you haven’t said anything new – that was said by all administrations. Its radar, with a range of more than 2,000 km (1,250 miles), meant it could cover a large part of China, far outside the scope of the threat South Korea faces, Hua said.

Kazianis said he think it’s more likely the administration will attempt secondary sanctions, including ones against Chinese entities that help North Korea.

A North Korean soldier (right) takes a snapshot from outside the window while US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (center) listens to USFK Commander Gen. Vincent K. Brooks during his visit to Panmunjeom, the truce village on the inter-Korean border, Friday.

Tillerson is now in the middle of a three-nation trip to Asia, having left Japan on Thursday and scheduled to meet with leaders in China on Saturday.

And these meetings may help elucidate a coherent North Korea policy at a complex and volatile time for the region.

Yun also seemed to express support for that option, stating, “We have various policy methods available”.

Japan launched a spy satellite yesterday, just a week after North Korea launched four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, showing its ability to hit the country from certain distances.

The decision to put in the system was made by the Obama administration, and USA officials have always insisted it is intended exclusively for protection against North Korea.

He’s expected to meet with Chinese officials this weekend and press them to do more to reign in North Korea.

But the Chinese government insists it already observes United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang and bristles at the deployment of a new American anti-missile system in South Korea.

Tillerson’s comments toward North Korea don’t necessarily mark a real rupture with USA policy – the United States has maintained thousands of troops in South Korea for decades for a reason, after all.

Tillerson has said that the current sanctions against North Korea aren’t working as a deterrent against the country developing nuclear weapons and that a new approach is needed. Trump responded in a tweet: “It won’t happen!”

“Let me be very clear: the policy of strategic patience has ended”, said Tillerson. The Obama administration refused to resume them unless the North re-committed to the goal of denuclearization, something that North Korea has shown little interest in doing.

US administrations have long considered military action out of the question because North Korea has artillery targeting Seoul, metropolitan area of more than 20 million people just 30 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.

“We do have to be concerned about any kind of an attack”, he said. North Korea has made commitments not only to the USA but to other nations and then reneged on them, and the US shouldn’t engage it in negotiations until Pyongyang makes it clear that it is serious about giving up nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees. He also encouraged China to fully implement United Nations sanctions meant to pressure the North Korean government.