Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered the first hope in a while of a path to peaceful resolution of the Korean nuclear crisis that has Hawaii, Alaska and ultimately the U.S. mainland in the crosshairs.
Tillerson delivered a long-needed message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, assuring him in a press statement that the United States has no wish to topple his regime.
“We do not seek a regime change, we do not seek the collapse of the regime, we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula, we do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th parallel,” he said.
Tillerson was unusually direct and unequivocal in speaking to Kim’s regime survival fears that drive his aggressive nuclear program and have both sides backed into corners.
And he succinctly summarized the U.S. problem with North Korean nukes, telling Pyongyang: “We are not your enemy, we are not your threat. But you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us, and we have to respond.”
In the babel that is the Trump administration, the question is whether Tillerson’s welcome words actually represent U.S. policy.
As he laid a basis for possible talks, others such as Vice President Mike Pence continued the Trumpian
saber-rattling and brushed aside negotiations.
Trump’s strategy of pressuring China to stop Kim’s nuclear ambitions is going nowhere; it’s doubtful Beijing even has the clout to stand Kim down.
The president has been deaf to China’s suggestion of a moratorium on North Korean nuclear testing in exchange for U.S. suspension of large-scale military exercises with South Korea, followed by talks for a permanent peaceful solution.
This could be workable if Tillerson’s assurances were reinforced.
The status quo, in which Kim tests bigger nuclear bombs and longer-range missiles while we respond with B-1 bomber exercises and warships, is dangerously counterproductive.
In a relatively short time, the North Korean threat has grown from missiles that can reach South Korea and Japan to missiles that can reach Hawaii and Alaska to missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland.
Analysts say it won’t be long before the North learns to marry its missiles with its estimated 20 Hiroshima-
size nuclear warheads.
U.S. insistence that Pyongyang disarm before talks begin amounts to a surrender that Kim has no reason to accept.
Worries that a moratorium would freeze North Korea’s status as a de facto nuclear power only accepts reality, and a freeze before the missiles and warheads are married is better than letting them become fully deployed.
The only alternative to such diplomacy is bad military options on both sides.
Tillerson has potentially opened a door, and for the sake of those of us downrange of the missiles. Here’s hoping all parties have the sense to walk through it.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
