Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
On Tuesday, as President Trump imposed another round of meaningless new sanctions on North Korea’s banks, Trump said that while he encouraged the world to work together to end the country’s nuclear program, the U.S. is “totally prepared” for a military option, which he said would be “totally devastating” for North Korea. Which at least provides some additional detail to what H.R. McMaster meant, when he said overnight that the U.S. has prepared “four or five different scenarios” for how the crisis with North Korea will be resolved, adding ominously that “some are uglier than others.”
“We are totally prepared for the second option — not a preferred option — but if we take that option it will be devastating I can tell you that,” Trump said during a joint news conference Tuesday at the White House with Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. “For North Korea that is called the military option. If we have to take it we will.”
Trump says the US is “totally prepared” for a military option against North Korea, which would be “devastating” https://t.co/BUXAL142gP pic.twitter.com/wpIdlx7V5q
— CNN International (@cnni) 26 September 2017
The president added that North Korea’s nuclear weapons threaten “the entire world with unthinkable loss of life” and “all nations must act now to ensure the regime’s complete denuclearization.”
Trump said his tough words for Kim Jong Un were a reply to the North Korean leader’s own words. “He’s saying things that should never, ever be said,” Mr. Trump said.
Trump also declared North Korea an “outlaw regime” and thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for breaking banking ties with his Asian neighbor and for placing new restrictions on Pyongyang while enforcing new United Nations sanctions on Kim Jong Un’s regime.
“I applaud China’s recent action to restrict its trade with North Korea,” Trump added. “In particular I applaud China for breaking all banking relationships with North Korea. I want to thank President Xi.”
The U.S. Treasury Department stepped up measures Tuesday in the effort to choke off North Korea from the international financial system by imposing new penalties on banks and individuals linked to the country’s financial networks.
According to Bloomberg, the U.S. designated eight North Korean banks and 26 North Korean nationals who act as representatives for the country’s banks, operating in China, Russia, Libya and the United Arab Emirates.
One day prior, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho escalated tensions by declaring that his country would be within its rights to shoot down U.S. warplanes flying in international airspace, arguing that Trump’s tough language at the United Nations last week amount to a declaration of war. That startled financial markets, coming just days after the Pentagon sent planes near North Korea’s border.
As discussed this morning, Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said that the U.S. has gamed out four or five different scenarios for dealing with North Korea and “some are uglier than others.” Speaking at an event in Washington hosted by the Institute for the Study of War, McMaster said that “there’s not a ‘precision strike’ that solves the problem,” and “there’s not a military blockade that can solve the problem. What we hope to do is avoid war, but we cannot discount that possibility.”
Subsequently, speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that North Korea hasn’t made military moves to match its rhetoric. “While the political space is clearly very charged right now, we haven’t seen any change in the posture of North Korean forces,” Dunford said. “We watch that very carefully. We clearly posture our forces in the event of a provocation or a conflict.” Nonetheless, Dunford also said it’s best to assume that North Korea already has the capability to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-armed ballistic missile and is likely to overcome any remaining engineering issues.
“it’s best to assume that North Korea already has the capability to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-armed ballistic missile and is likely to overcome any remaining engineering issues.”
Lol, what bollocks is this! WMD 2.0? Even if this garbage was reality, why would a midget power poke a 10,000 warhead superpower for a “suicide by cop”? It beggars belief that anyone takes this seriously.
BS news.. totally BS news
The president added that North Korea’s nuclear weapons threaten “the entire world with unthinkable loss of life”
What a load of crap.
When was the last time North Korea attacked a sovereign nation?
When was the last time NK funded, aided and trained terrorists?
If I was NK I would not be giving up my nuclear program either, just look what happens to countries that do give up their weapons of mass destruction.
Libya went from the highest standard of living in Africa to blown back to the stone age by NATO.
Iraq also a very good standard of living till the weapons of mass destruction lie got them invaded.
>>When was the last time North Korea attacked a sovereign nation?<>When was the last time NK funded, aided and trained terrorists?<<
A lot of the old classic terrorist groups, IRA, ETA, PLO, RAF are said to have received training by NK instructors during the Cold War. And maybe still thereafter for a while. As they probably paid handsomely for it and NK was and still is always strapped for cash.
The point I'm trying to make, this is not an innocent regime in those regards. That being said, I fully agree, for the regime to give up its nuclear program equals suicide. It may not happen today, or under this president, but without a nuclear deterrent at some point the US will initiate regime change. All the evidence of past behavior points to that. Hell, it would probably have already happened, if it weren't for those pesky Nork nukes.
well on the other hand Us funds all kind of terrorists in the Middle east…terrorists that have drowned Europe in blood
People keep saying that, I still have to see any evidence for that. Does the US fund and create Al Qaida and ISIS, until I see actual evidence, not echo chamber speculation, I don’t buy it. Does the US use these organizations indirectly to further its interests? By using other proxy groups that it does support to funnel information and turn a blind eye to weapons being transferred, yeah, that I buy.
well we have the cia flights-airlifts of personnel and taking them to safe locations in many ocassions. isis personel. then we have the 2billion $ of weapons noone knows where in syria they are. then we have the ‘deal’ between isis and sdf to evacuate the lands north of the river whereas in the case of SAA they fight like devils. what about the recent photos of US sof occupying fortified posistions previously belonging to ISIS.taken without a single bullet fired?and if they did this because ISIS retreated…why didnt it retreat from the whole area?miracuosly only from the sdfs advancing area.
That’s not a “Blind Eye” but more like ‘Nudge, Nudge , Wink, Wink ! You know what I mean!” and the funny part is that they do know what they mean.
Thanks for your response, A civil war is hardly attacking a sovereign nation, but that was 67 years ago, when did the US last attack a sovereign nation?
That was this year with the false claims of chemical attack in Syria.
If the links with Cold war era terrorists are correct that would be more then 25 plus years ago.
When did the US fund, train, arm or help terrorist?
That is still ongoing.
North Korea is always strapped for cash the same way Cuba was with US introduced sanctions.
I have no illusion that North Korea is a innocent regime, but my point is to illustrate the hypocrisy.
Noticed all the those Accusations were leveled by the US and no one else but as they say an oft repeated lie becomes repeated again, STILL without any substantiating evidence is still a lie be it for propaganda purposes as it was done here to demonize NK. The reverse could be said about the US as these can be substantiated as the real provender of these classic groups.
You seem to have forgotten another one financed by NK allegedly was PETA , oh wait that like the rest they were funded by USAID.
Syria had the most advanced health care system of the Middle East.
Hopefully that standard will return soon.
Mossad-ZeroHedge runs about three North Korea this, North Korea that fake news stories every day. What makes this one so special that Southfront feels the itch to reprint it? Laughable.
id like to be far away, when they go for scenario 2 and further, but there’s no place far away enough. lol We all got one planet only.
After years, even gone thru the dark my self, of utter ignorance, I have learned one thing, never, ever believe the history you get from the west, never again believe anything they say, never believe anything they use as prof, images to story’s, never again will I believe them, until the day I die.
I hope South Front, whom is so far uniq, whom, despite the insane amount of rubbish propaganda, fake history’s as we all are realizing is becoming an revelation, that is what I will give you again.
I hope I dont have to do it more, because its slowly destroying our reality.
I will not point on anyone, just watch this videos, one is a video some of you are familiar with, the second probably not.
Adolf Hitler and the truth about Bankers wars, never forget this, you think everything is new, I tell you this is millenniums old, a fight between Darkness and Light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HWxKahieBY
(a 6h video)
And North Korea, an stunning beautiful country, and people, this video is what I define as exactly the same as the one about Germany.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPDztmWfziM
I recommend you, to do the walk, see thru it all, and things will dawn to you, the truth.
May the Lord have mercy upon our souls, when the Trumpstein is to unleash another hell on earth and for what, nobody knows, I still dont know why, but Trumpstein dont care, They want war, any way, war is bissenisse, capice, all wars are bankers, wars, that was what Hitler did, that is what NK is going thru, the same crap book, used thru century’s.
And my humble request goes to Russia, do the right thing, tell us the truth.
Wake up, Germany, wake up.
peace
the whole country is a big prison
peace
see the location of the us naval forces in the world map.the aircraft carrier groups especially. they are all in home port. Only 2 are in the gulf area fighting isis(hard not to laugh at this) and another somewhere in the phillipine sea. so Trump either doesnt want to prrovoke-escalate the tension or knows that ‘little missile man’ is just a stupid puppet that gives him votes by allowing him to play ‘tough cowboy’. given that the US Generals would love to display the might of the US navy i think that the whole situation is just a theater with bad acting. No one wants to risk a war. Not because of the nukes Kim may have, but just because of the death toll on both Koreas in a war. So keep up the good work ,kim and donald and sell as many weapons as possible.
lol yea its better tho, US cant make as much trouble with only 2 carriers abroad
Words of a deranged mind.