US refuses to rule out pre-emptive strike on North Korea as Donald Trump takes swipe at despotic regime
THE US hinted that it would consider a pre-emptive strike on North Korea – as President Trump took aim at the country’s despotic regime.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on a visit to the Far East, announced that the “policy of strategic patience” had ended and refused to rule out military action against Kim Jong-un.
Hours later Trump blasted in a tweet: “North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been ‘playing’ the United States for years. China has done little to help!”
Ex-oil company CEO Tillerson had bluntly warned North Korea’s dictator hours earlier that he faces pre-emptive military action if he continues developing nuclear missiles.
He said: “Let me be very clear — the policy of strategic patience has ended.
“The diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bring North Korea to a point of de-nuclearisation have failed. So we have 20 years of a failed approach.
“And that includes a period in which the US provided $1.35billion in assistance to North Korea as an encouragement to take a different pathway.”
Tillerson outlined a tough strategy to confront North Korea’s nuclear threat after visiting the world’s most heavily armed border, near the tense buffer zone between rivals North and South Korea.
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Asked about the possibility of using military force against the North, Tillerson later told a news conference in the South Korean capital “all of the options are on the table”.
He added: “If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level we believe requires action that option is on the table.”
The Secretary of State also said the US would not rule out arming other nations in the Far East with nukes to help keep Pyongyang in check.
North Korea has accelerated its weapons development, violating multiple UN Security Council resolutions undeterred by tough international sanctions.
The North conducted two nuclear test explosions and 24 ballistic missile tests last year.
Experts say it could have a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the US within a few years.
Last week it launched four missiles into seas off Japan, in an apparent reaction to major annual military drills the US is conducting with South Korea.