Tensions Growing With North Korea

President Trump has been threatening military action against North Korea, and no one thinks he’s bluffing.

Three U.S. aircraft carrier groups are headed to the Korean peninsula. Vice President Pence is in Seoul, co-ordinating with the South Korean government.

North Korea remains defiant. An earlier missile test–that they were told not to try–was a failure, but officials vow to conduct more tests every week. The foreign minister said that any military response from the U.S. would result in nuclear war “on the Korean peninsula,” evidently a threat to strike South Korea.

From White House warns North Korea not to test U.S. resolve, offering Syria and Afghanistan strikes as examples – The Washington Post:

Vice President Pence warned North Korea on Monday not to test U.S. military might by pursuing its nuclear weapons program, citing recent strikes in Syria and Afghanistan as proof of American “strength and resolve.”

The stark warning, delivered in Seoul after the vice president went to the military demarcation line that separates the two Koreas, could revive speculation that the White House is considering military action against the regime in Pyongyang.

Pence said the Trump administration wants to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons “through peaceful means,” but he repeated the administration’s warning that “all options are on the table.”

In Washington, President Trump told CNN at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll that North Korea has “gotta behave.”

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump would not be “drawing red lines in the sand” with North Korea.

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Illustration of Kim Jong-Un by User P388388 on Wikimedia Commons (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons