Secretary of Defense Mattis put out a warning and a threat to the North Korean regime.
From the Hill:
“The United States and our allies have the demonstrated capabilities and unquestionable commitment to defend ourselves from an attack. Kim Jong Un should take heed of the United Nations Security Council’s unified voice, and statements from governments the world over, who agree the DPRK poses a threat to global security and stability. The DPRK must choose to stop isolating itself and stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.
“President Trump was informed of the growing threat last December and on taking office his first orders to me emphasized the readiness of our ballistic missile defense and nuclear deterrent forces. While our State Department is making every effort to resolve this global threat through diplomatic means, it must be noted that the combined allied militaries now possess the most precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on Earth. The DPRK regime’s actions will continue to be grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates.”
This is a little more measured than Trump’s statement, but still gets across the same idea.
The ace that North Korea has is that even though we can overwhelmingly obliterate them, they can still slaughter millions in South Korea and we wouldn’t be able to stop them with all our military power.
I don’t envy Trump, this is not an easy dilemma. What I worry about is that he keeps telling everyone it IS an easy dilemma to solve….