Also the president may call out some countries for not doing enough on economic sanctions against Pyongyang, including China and Russia. The administration announced new sanctions Wednesday against North Korea and also indicated that two Chinese firms helped export metals and other items used in the regime’s weapons programs. Russia also has been criticized for supplying North Korea with fuel despite earlier sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.
Additionally, given North Korea sat down earlier this month with South Korea may not be lost on Trump as he stresses that all options remain on the table to defend the United States, including military action. And despite the hawkish talk from the administration about possible military strikes against North Korea, experts say Trump is not expected to talk about a war being imminent.
“The State Department and the Defense Department have been trying to walk this fine line where they want North Korea to take the threat of war seriously so that the regime will disarm,” said Stephen Biddle, adjunct senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. “But they don’t want to actually paint us into a corner where we get a war.”
Still, experts say they expect Trump to talk about just how close North Korea is to getting an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. Last year, North Korea test-launched at least three ICBM missiles, including a Hwasong-15 in late November that raised concerns in the U.S. defense community as it was a record-breaking launch for the regime.
The CIA Director Mike Pompeo was asked about North Korea during a BBC interview broadcast Monday and said the regime has the capability “to deliver a nuclear weapon to the United States in a matter of a handful of months.” Also, the CIA head warned, “There is a set of military tasks that might have to be taken.”
“Everything I’ve heard is President Trump is going to be forceful when it comes to North Korea,” said Rebeccah Heinrichs, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
Added Heinrichs, “We’ve known they have a nuclear capability and the hard part is getting the nuclear weapon small enough to mount it on an ICBM to deliver it. And this last ICBM that North Korea tested, the Hwasong-15, shocked everybody.”
