While he said he agrees with the
aggressive statements President Trump has fired at North Korea, former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned Congress last week against potential
military intervention near Russian and Chinese borders without the world’s
support.
The Trump administration has
signaled that North Korea would be crossing a red line if it developed nuclear
capability for its intercontinental ballistic missile program. Yet some policy
officials and military experts claim that North Korea has already crossed that
line, or is at least very close to attaching nuclear warheads to its missiles.
Kissinger offered his thoughts on
the impending “fork in the road,” in which the administration may consider
pre-emptive military action or increasingly tighter sanctions against the
regime.
“We will hit that fork in the
road, and the temptation to deal with it with a pre-emptive attack is strong,
and the argument is rational, but I have seen no public statement by any
leading official,” Nixon’s secretary of State told members of the Senate Armed
Services Committee. “But in any event, my own thinking, I would be very
concerned by any unilateral American war at the borders of China and Russia, in
which we are not supported by a significant part of the world, or at least of
the Asian world.”
The current North Korean trajectory, Kissinger
continued, could lead to nuclear proliferation throughout Asia, as he believes
South Korea will not accept being the only Korea without nuclear capability.
Japan will follow suit, he said.
“Then
we’re living in a new world, in which technically competent countries with
adequate command structures are possessing nuclear weapons in an area where
there are considerable national disagreements,” Kissinger said. “That is a new
world that will require new thinking by us.”
This
would drive a rethinking of the entire U.S. nuclear deterrent posture,
Kissinger said, as the current strategy assumes only one potential nuclear
threat. One little country in North Korea does not pose such an extreme threat,
Kissinger said, but the situation has the potential to evolve into a nuclear
landscape the world has never seen.
In
the coming weeks, the Trump administration is expected to release its Nuclear
Policy Review, which is rumored to call for new nuclear weapons capability,
more useable nuclear weapons and expanded conditions under which the U.S. would
contemplate using a nuclear weapon.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked President
Reagan’s Secretary of State George P. Shultz, pictured above, if he still believes that the U.S.
should further reduce its reliance on nuclear weapons. Schultz said a nuclear
exchange would have “devastating” impacts on the planet, “so I continue to
believe that we should be trying to eliminate them.”
“We were getting there for a while, and now that’s
all stopped, and now our problem is proliferation, so this is a new problem we
have to work out and work at it hard,” Schultz said.
Schultz also agreed with Kissinger’s recommendation
that the U.S. attempt to start a serious dialogue with Russia, which the U.S.
could expand to other countries and attempt to get a joint enterprise with the
objective of eliminating nuclear weapons from the planet.
In response to Kissinger’s comments on North Korea,
Schultz said that the U.S. needs to be “careful with red lines.” He added that
when a solider points his weapon at an enemy, he’d better be ready to kill.
“Empty threats destroy you,” Schultz said.
He
agreed with Kissinger’s recommendation that the U.S. work constructively to
bring China and Russia to the table, mostly China, as it has greater influence
over North Korea. Kissinger said the U.S. should be working closely with China
to bring further sanctions and pressure against North Korea. Schultz pointed
out that China has a declining population and GDP, which should make them more
receptive to collaboration.
“That
would be my preferred course, and on the other hand, if it turns out that
neither is availing, then we better get used to the fact that South Korea, in
my opinion, will not accept being the only Korea that has no nuclear weapon,”
Kissinger said.
Earlier
in the conversation, Kissinger said that if it gets to the point where the U.S.
is forced to come to a deal with North Korea and freeze its nuclear program,
the U.S. will have somewhat legitimized North Korea’s military capability,
which will encourage other countries in the region.
No comments:
Post a Comment