President Donald Trump's threat before the world to obliterate North Korea left no doubt about his determination to stop the communist country's nuclear weapons buildup. His disparagement of the Iran nuclear deal in the same speech offered Pyongyang little hope of a negotiated solution.
In his maiden address at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump spelled out in blunt and personal terms the reasons why Kim Jong Un and his government should be treated as pariahs. It was a surprisingly brutal indictment, even by the standards of a president who has spoken about unleashing "fire and fury" on Kim's country if it didn't end its nuclear provocations.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trump said not only has the North Korean government starved its citizens and killed opponents, it was now threatening the world with "unthinkable loss of life."
"It is time for North Korea to realize that the denuclearization is its only acceptable future," Trump said.
He offered no path toward making that future a reality.
Despite Trump's rhetoric, his administration insists it is seeking a diplomatic resolution. Any military intervention designed to eliminate the North's nuclear and missile arsenal would almost surely entail dire risks for U.S. allies in the region, particularly South Korea, lying in range of the North's vast stockpiles of weaponry.
A man walks past a TV screen showing U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the U.N. General Assembly, in Tokyo Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Asked about Trump's address, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reiterated his preference Tuesday.
"We will hopefully get this resolved through diplomatic means," Mattis told reporters in Washington.
But other than using economic pressure to try to compel Pyongyang to give away its nuclear weapons — a strategy that has failed for the past decade — Trump's administration has yet to lay out a strategy for a possible negotiated settlement. In recent weeks, the administration's lack of direction has been all too apparent, as Trump and other top officials have vacillated between bellicose talk of possible military action and, at one point, even praise for Kim for a brief lull in missile tests.
"In the absence of such a policy roadmap, the president's words won't change North Korea's behavior," said Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert and president of the Washington-based Mansfield Foundation. "Nor will they bolster Chinese, Russian or allied confidence in the U.S. approach."
Fears of a military confrontation are increasing. North Korea conducted a series of provocative launches in recent months, including a pair of intercontinental missiles believed capable of striking the continental United States and another pair that soared over Japanese territory. It also exploded its most powerful nuclear bomb to date. Prodded by Washington, the U.N. has responded with the toughest economic sanctions on North Korea yet.
Still, the impasse is no closer to being resolved. Russia and China, which backed the new sanctions, want the U.S. to seek dialogue with the North. American officials say the time isn't right for any formal diplomatic process.
Instead, Trump has escalated the name calling. On Tuesday, he derisively referred to Kim as a "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission."
Trump also made a direct comparison between the "reckless regimes" in Pyongyang and Tehran, which rolled back its nuclear program only two years ago.
The comparison could reinforce Kim's view that he needs nuclear-armed, intercontinental ballistic missiles to deter the U.S. from attacking him, according to Mark Fitzpatrick at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
"Denouncing a deal that all other parties are upholding will certainly not make the North Koreans any more disposed toward striking a deal with the United States over their nuclear program," he said.
Trump called the Iran deal one-sided and "an embarrassment to the United States." His comments heightened anticipation that Trump might declare Iran in violation of the seven-nation agreement, and even destroy it entirely, despite a U.N. report this month showing Iran was living up to its end of the bargain.
The Obama administration, which forged the Iran deal, never lost an opportunity to point out how it showed Washington was willing to reach a deal with an adversary prepared to negotiate in good faith. It often made that argument explicitly when talking about North Korea.
Pyongyang may be completely uninterested.
The North has virtually closed the door to a diplomatic resolution, said Evans Revere, a former senior State Department official who participated in unofficial talks with North Korean officials in Switzerland this month. "Defiance and confrontation, not dialogue, seem to be at the center of Pyongyang's thinking these days," he said. "That's a dangerous place to be."
Nevertheless, U.S. allies don't want Trump to close off the possibility of a peaceful end to the crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's threatening approach. She offered to help negotiate a solution similar to that reached with Iran.
"I think we must take the same path or a similar one, with Russia, with China, together with the US, also in the case of North Korea," she told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Speaking shortly before Trump at the U.N. on Tuesday, the world body's secretary-general urged diplomacy.
"Fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings," Antonio Guterres said. "This is a time for statesmanship. We must not sleepwalk our way into war."
Israel’s leaders commemorated Memorial Day on Monday, a usually somber holiday that this year was almost entirely absorbed by the ongoing war in Gaza.
At 11:00 A.M., sirens announced two minutes of silence, and a formation of four fighter planes then flew over Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. At a ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed once again to defeat Hamas, a promise he has made repeatedly during Israel’s brutal seven month war with the militant group.
More than 300,000 Palestinians fled Rafah over the weekend as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the southern city, according to U.N. estimates.
Israel also pounded Gaza's devastated north, where some Hamas militants have regrouped in areas the military said it had cleared months ago.
The death toll from the war in Gaza has soared to more than 35,000 people, most of them women and children, according to local health officials.
The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
Currently:
— Israel moves deeper into Rafah and fights Hamas militants regrouping in northern Gaza.
— Blinken delivers some of the U.S.'s strongest public criticism yet of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.
— U.K. foreign secretary David Cameron says halting arms sales to Israel would only strengthen Hamas.
— With the shock of Oct. 7 still raw, sadness and anger grip Israel on its Memorial Day.
— Pro-Palestinian protests dwindle on U.S. campuses, as some college graduations are marked by defiant acts.
Here's the latest:
JERUSALEM — During Israel’s Memorial Day speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one spectator waved a flag with “7.10” in red, the date of Hamas’ deadly attack last October, while another heckled the Israeli leader.
The usually somber event has been compounded by the sadness and simmering public anger over the failures of Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters from Gaza broke into southern Israel and killed 1, 200 people, mostly Israelis, the act that sparked the war.
“We are constantly working to bring everyone back, the living and the fallen alike, to bring everyone back home. We have already returned about half of them, and we will return them all,” Netanyahu said.
Shortly after finishing his speech at Mount Herzl cemetery a man in the crowd was heard shouting “garbage” in Hebrew in the direction of the Israeli leader.
Thousands of Israelis have been rallying every week in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, calling for Netanyahu to step down.
Many believe he should be doing more to secure the release of dozens of hostages captured by Hamas.
Netanyahu has rejected Hamas’ demand for an end to the war, saying it would allow the group to remain in control of Gaza and eventually launch another Oct. 7-style attack.
CAIRO — U.N. officials say 360,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah in the past week amid Israel’s intensified assault on the southern Gaza city, and aid agencies are rushing to distribute dwindling food supplies to the newly displaced people.
Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the U.N.’s World Food Program, said Monday that 38 trucks of flour had arrived through the Western Erez Crossing, the second access point now operating to the largely devastated northern sector of the Gaza Strip. But no food has entered the two main crossings in southern Gaza for the past week.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been closed since Israeli troops seized it a week ago, while fighting in Rafah city has made it impossible for aid groups to access the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.
The main U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said Monday that so far 360,000 people have fled Rafah, where some 1.3 million Palestinians had been crowded for weeks after fleeing Israel’s onslaught elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.
Etefa said WFP is distributing food from its remaining stocks in the areas of Khan Younis and Deir Balah further north to which many of those escaping Rafah have fled but that the situation is becoming “increasingly unsustainable.”
Almost the entire population of Gaza relies on humanitarian groups’ distribution of food and other supplies to survive. Amid Israeli restrictions and obstacles to aid distribution from violence, some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger, on the brink of starvation, and a “full-blown famine” is taking place in the north, according to the U.N.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military said Monday that four of its troops were injured in missile fire from southern Lebanon, as cross-border exchanges of fire with Hezbollah militants continue.
Hezbollah acknowledged the strike, saying its forces struck and destroyed an Israeli tank in the Yitfah area, northern Israel, around a kilometer from the Lebanese border.
The Israeli army said one of the soldiers was moderately injured, and all were taken to hospital. No further information was immediately available.
Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire on a near-daily basis along the border since the start of the war in Gaza seven months ago.
The Shiite force, which controls vast swathes of southern Lebanon, says it is acting in solidarity with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose deadly Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel triggered the war.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 350 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups but also including more than 50 civilians. In Israel, strikes from Lebanon have killed at least 10 civilians and 12 soldiers.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s leaders commemorated Memorial Day on Monday, honoring the country’s fallen soldiers and those killed in attacks on a holiday that was almost entirely absorbed by the ongoing war in Gaza.
The usually somber calendar event has been compounded by the sadness and simmering public anger over the failures of Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters from Gaza broke into southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, the act that sparked the war. The holiday began Sunday evening and continues until nightfall on Monday.
During the day’s opening ceremony at Mount Herzl cemetery on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed once again to defeat Hamas, a promise he has made repeatedly during Israel’s brutal seven month war with the militant group.
“We are determined to win this struggle, we exacted and will exact a high price from the enemy for their criminal acts, we will realize the goals of victory and at the center of them the return of all our hostages home,” Netanyahu said from the podium.
Israel responded to Hamas’ deadly October assault by bombarding and invading Gaza, killing over 35,000 Palestinians from the enclave according to the Hamas-run health Ministry. More than 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the war erupted.
Among the other attendees at Mount Herzl was the Israeli President, Isaac Herzog.
At 11:00 A.M. on Monday, sirens announced two minutes of silence, and a formation of four fighter planes then flew over Jerusalem and the surrounding areas.
Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi, front left, listens to a message during a ceremony marking Memorial Day for fallen soldiers of Israel's wars and victims of attacks at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery Monday, May 13, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP)
Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi attends a ceremony marking Memorial Day for fallen soldiers of Israel's wars and victims of attacks at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery Monday, May 13, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP)
An Israeli soldier knees next to the national flag during the celebrations of the Israel's annual Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers at the site where revelers were killed and kidnapped on Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants at the Nova music festival near the kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, May 13, 2024. Israel marks the annual Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of nationalistic attacks. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
An Israeli soldier stands still to observe two minutes of silence as air raid sirens sound marking the Israel's annual Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers, at the site where revellers were killed and kidnapped on Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants at the Nova music festival near the kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, May 13, 2024. Israel marks the annual Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of nationalistic attacks. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israelis observe two minutes of silence as air raid sirens sound to mark Israel's annual Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers who died in the nation's conflicts and victims of nationalistic attacks at the Armored Corps memorial site in Latrun, Israel, Monday, May 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip walk through a makeshift tent camp in Deir al Balah, Gaza, Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip in front of the morgue of the Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip in front of the morgue of the Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip in front of the morgue of the Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a ceremony marking Memorial Day for fallen soldiers of Israel's wars and victims of attacks at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery Monday, May 13, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP)
People pray during celebrations for the Israel's annual Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers, at the site where revellers were killed and kidnapped on Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants at the Nova music festival near the kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, May 13, 2024. Israel marks the annual Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of nationalistic attacks. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
An Israeli soldier knees next to the national flag during the celebrations of the Israel's annual Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers at the site where revelers were killed and kidnapped on Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants at the Nova music festival near the kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Monday, May 13, 2024. Israel marks the annual Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of nationalistic attacks. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
