US President Donald Trump has announced that there’s a potential “major conflict” coming against North Korea, although his preferred way of dealing with the Kim Jong-un situation would be tactful negotiation, which isn’t exactly Trump’s forte. The delicate crisis we’re dealing with here is Kim’s itchy trigger and his penchant for nuclear weapons and his adamant determination to create a missile capable of being launched from North Korea and reaching the United States.
Obviously it’s in Trump’s best interests that this doesn’t happen.
The Trump administration has spent all week trying to suppress the military muscle in Pyongyang and the irresponsible nature of Kim and his typically reckless antics, specifically to get them to stop testing intercontinental missiles. It seems as though that was a losing battle and they’ve packed that in as Trump has come forward to admit that a “major, major conflict” may be on its way with the Asian dictatorship.
This comes at the back end of Trump’s first 100 days as President
Trump’s campaign was very first-100-days-heavy, but he’s been mostly ignoring the milestone as he hasn’t accomplished anywhere near what he promised he would on the campaign trail.
Instead, he’s warning his country about the nuclear war he may have begun. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has announced that the US is prepared for face-to-face negotiations with Kim and his people, but that if these talks are to take place, Kim would have to be ready to consider throwing out all of his nuclear arms. Of course the US will not do the same, because they’re selfish.
The White House is only announcing that it’s open to negotiation now because Admiral Harry Harris, who’s in charge of the US Pacific Command, told the Senate that the North Korea situation is in the worst condition he’s ever seen it. Thankfully, Trump agreed, and he’s finally taking the Kim Jong-un situation with the gravity it deserves, because this is very serious stuff we’re talking about, and very dangerous waters we’re heading into.
The conflict is not a given – there’s just ‘a chance’
Luckily, this “major, major conflict with North Korea” isn’t guaranteed. Trump only warned that there would be “a chance” of such a conflict, but it hopefully won’t get to that stage. Trump also said, to Reuters, that he and his administration would “love to solve things diplomatically,” but admits that this is “very difficult” to accomplish.
However, Trump did note a plus side to the situation, because the Chinese President Xi Jinping has agreed to join forces with the US in pressuring Kim to get rid of his nukes. Xi’s cooperation may have something to do with the “friendship” that Trump claims the two are forming, or Xi could have been impressed by the missile strike Trump called on Syria following President Assad’s chemical attack on his own people when Xi was staying with Trump at his Florida resort and thought to himself, “This guy means business.
I like this guy.” And now here we are.
Trump believes that Xi is “trying very hard” to figure out the North Korea crisis because he doesn’t want “turmoil and death” to come to his people. The US President lauded the Chinese President as “a good man...a very good man,” who he has gotten to know “very well” over his first handful of months in the Oval Office. He also noted Xi’s patriotism and love for his own country, saying that “he loves China and he loves the people of China,” which is something he probably believes they have in common, and Trump supporters certainly agree, but it’s debatable given what he’s done to ‘his people’ with some of his policies. Trump also said that while Xi “would like to be able to do something” about North Korea, “it’s possible that he can’t.” How cheeky.