Mattis Warns North Korea: U.S. Has ‘Many Military Options’
Administration draws up new economic sanctions, criticizes Beijing and Seoul after latest nuclear test
WASHINGTON—U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis warned North Korea in stark terms on Sunday that any attack on the U.S. or its allies would trigger a massive military response, in comments that came after a national-security briefing with President Donald Trump called in response to Pyongyang’s sixth and most powerful nuclear test.
“We have many military options and the president wanted to be briefed on each one of them,” said Mr. Mattis in brief comments Sunday afternoon, accompanied by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mr. Mattis warned that any attacks on the U.S., Japan or South Korea “will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming.”
Mr. Mattis urged the regime to heed calls from the U.S. and other members of the United Nations Security Council to step back its nuclear escalation, “because we are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea, but as I said, we have many options to do so.”
Earlier, President Trump denounced North Korea as a hostile “rogue nation,” while also lashing out at China and South Korea, which he says have done too little to restrain the Pyongyang regime. The Trump administration also said it was drawing up new steps to further cut off North Korea’s economy in the wake of the latest nuclear escalation, which is shaping up as the most consequential national-security challenge of Mr. Trump’s young presidency.
Mr. Trump attended St. John’s Church near the White House on Sunday morning to mark a National Day of Prayer for victims of Tropical Storm Harvey. When he left the church, a reporter asked, “Mr. President, will you attack North Korea?” He responded, “We’ll see.”
North Korea’s acceleration of both its nuclear and missile programs has created the biggest foreign-policy crisis in Mr. Trump’s first seven months in office. It comes as he is also handing an unfolding national crisis in Texas due to catastrophic flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey.
Last week, Mr. Trump said that “all options were on the table” when it came to dealing with North Korea. That statement followed North Korea’s launch of a missile over Japan on Tuesday. The White House has refused to elaborate on Mr. Trump’s thinking, but his ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said later that day that “something serious has to happen.”
The U.S. previously made clear military action was an option, but sees it carrying massive risks. An overt attack on North Korea—whether to target its facilities or military—could ignite a war that could kill millions of people on the Korean Peninsula. Mr. Mattis has warned that a military solution would be “tragic on an unbelievable scale.”
Mr. Trump’s comments in recent months on North Korea have been conciliatory at times. In a speech on Aug. 23 in Phoenix, President Trump said North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, was starting to show respect to the U.S. and that “maybe something positive can come about.”
But in Twitter posts Sunday morning, Mr. Trump had harsh words for North Korea, saying its “words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous” to the U.S. He then targeted two countries he has been leaning on to pressure the Pyongyang regime, saying North Korea’s actions were an “embarrassment” to China and criticizing South Korea for not taking a firmer line with its northern neighbor.
“South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work,” Mr. Trump posted on Twitter. “They only understand one thing!”
Later, Mr. Trump tweeted that the U.S. “is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.”
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he has spoken to the president about further isolating North Korea economically.
“It is clear that this behavior is completely unacceptable,” said Mr. Mnuchin on Fox News Sunday. “We’ve already started with sanctions… but I am going to draft a sanctions package to send to the president for his strong consideration that anybody that wants to do trade or business with them would be prevented from doing trade or business with us.”
North Korea’s main trading partner is China, and it has trade ties with other nations including Russia and India as well.
South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, speaking by phone with Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, his counterpart at the White House, said that Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, had called for the “strongest punitive measures” against Pyongyang. That includes diplomatic measures and a new United Nations Security Council resolution to “completely isolate North Korea.”
Complicating matters, Mr. Trump’s criticism of South Korea comes as Mr. Trump has expressed interested privately about ending the Korea Free Trade Agreement, which his national security advisers have warned him against, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
In early August, the U.S. successfully pushed the Council to adopt tougher economic sanctions on North Korea with China and Russia’s endorsement. But diplomats say that sanctions are a long-term strategy that takes a while to have impact. Shorter strategies range from military action to cutting diplomatic.
South Korea’s presidential Blue House responded to Mr. Trump’s tweets in a statement Sunday, saying that it was on board with Mr. Trump’s attempts to apply “maximum sanctions and pressure.”
It added that, during meetings in June and July, both Washington and Seoul had agreed that the purpose of the pressure was to try to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table, and added that because Korea had experienced war, it was determined to seek denuclearization of the Korean peninsula through peaceful means.
Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement: “We stand ready to work with the administration to support a comprehensive strategy that not only places an emphasis on deterrence but also empowers our allies and partners in the region, who must do far more to confront this threat.”
Other lawmakers expressed some concerns about Mr. Trump’s approach. Sen. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.), who has been a regular critic of Mr. Trump and also sits on the foreign-relations committee, said on CNN that while the U.S. has failed to slow Pyongyang’s nuclear advances, “harsh rhetoric” won’t help.
“We want somebody who is measured and sober and consistent and conservative in this regard,” said Mr. Flake of the president. “But he has a good team around him and I have confidence in them.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, criticized Mr. Trump’s remarks targeting South Korea and said the U.S. needed to be working hand-in-hand with its allies. “That’s the only prospect for a peaceful path to this,” Mr. Schiff said. “So why we would want to show divisions with South Korea right now makes no sense at all.”
A State Department spokeswoman said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke with South Korea’s foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, on Sunday and is making calls to other officials in the region.
North Korea described the underground explosion as a “perfect success in the test of a hydrogen bomb for an ICBM.” Just hours earlier, Mr. Kim had showed off what he described as a hydrogen bomb capable of being mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The nuclear test was estimated to have a yield of as high as 100 kilotons—about 10 times the power of the North’s previous test and roughly five times that of the atomic bomb that the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, according to Kim Young-woo, a South Korean lawmaker who is chairman of the legislature’s defense committee and received a briefing from military authorities.
In Washington, officials said they haven’t confirmed the nuclear test involved a thermonuclear device, although they don’t question the blast was larger than past tests.
“We have nothing to cause us to doubt that this was a test of an advanced nuclear device,” a U.S. intelligence official said.
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American officials also continue to voice skepticism that North Korea has mastered the ability to mount a warhead to a missile and that it has overcome the challenges of atmospheric re-entry that an intercontinental missile would have to withstand. Technical analysis on the detonation is expected to take time before U.S. agencies are able to issue a definitive statement.
The U.N. Security Council will hold an open emergency meeting on North Korea on Monday morning at the request of U.S., U.K., France, Japan and South Korea.
The North Korean nuclear test, coupled with country’s recent missile launches, stands to heighten the stakes of a gathering of world leaders in New York later this month for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting, where world leaders will take the podium one after another to address the global body. President Donald Trump is expected to address world leaders Sept. 19,
The General Assembly meeting will provide the first opportunity since North Korea’s recent missile and nuclear bomb tests for the U.S. to meet face-to-face with the heads of allies Japan and South Korea. In addition to Mr. Trump’s highly anticipated speech, Mr. Tillerson and U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley will be holding a series of bilateral talks with counterparts on a range of issues and diplomats say North Korea will be on the agenda.
North Korea will be represented by a top official, according to a preliminary list of speakers, but no interaction is expected between North Korean and American diplomats. Mr. Kim isn’t expected to attend.
The U.S. and its European allies at the Security Council have called for all member states to increase economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea and better enforce the existing sanctions on Pyongyang. The Security Council in August unanimously approved new punitive measures.
Ms. Haley told the Council last week during an earlier emergency meeting on North Korea that the U.S. would act alone if the Council and the U.N. failed to prevent North Korea’s repeated provocations.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned North Korea’s nuclear test in a statement issued on Sunday, calling it “another serious breach of the DPRK’s international obligations” and said he has been in personal contact with all relevant parties.
“The DPRK is the only country that continues to break the norm against nuclear test explosions,” Mr. Guterres said.