Trump on Korea

Suggests Kim's Button Doesn't Even Work

Jason Ditz 

Posted onJanuary 2, 2018CategoriesNewsTagsNorth Korea, Trump

Continuing the centerpiece of his foreign policy agenda, talking up a nuclear war with North Korea, President Trump today reacted to reports from North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who warned he has a nuclear button and would use it if threatened by the US.

Trump declared that his own nuclear button is “a much bigger & more powerful one than his,” and adding that unlike Kim’s, his button “works.” This suggests the president believes the size of a nation’s nuclear arsenal is necessarily proportionate to the size of their button.

Trump’s suggestion that his button “works,” is the latest in a series of comments from US officials doubting North Korea’s nuclear capability. Defense Secretary James Mattis similarly insisted that North Korea’s arsenal was unproven.

These comments both suggest the US isn’t taking North Korea’s deterrent capabilities seriously, and that there is a serious risk that the Trump Administration will gamble on North Korea’s ability to retaliate with nuclear strikes on American cities in starting a huge war.

http://news.antiwar.com/2018/01/02/trump-on-north-korea-my-nuclear-button-is-bigger/