OPINION:
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley sent out some strong messaging via Twitter about North Korea, telling the world of social media readers that the time of simply tough talking was nearing an end.
Agreed. Nobody likes to bring it up. But regime change is the only way to stop North Korea from its global aggressions.
“Done talking about NKorea,” she wrote. “China is aware they must act. Japan & SKorea must inc pressure. Not only a US problem. It will req an intl solution.”
She wrote the tweet shortly after North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile — its second one this month, in violation of U.N. resolutions — believed to have to the range to reach the United States.
She also wrote the tweet on the heels of President Donald Trump’s own Twitter expression of frustration with the Chinese over their failures to exert financial pressure on North Korea.
“I am very disappointed in China,” Trump tweeted over the weekend. “Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet.”
Trump also tweeted of China: “They do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem.”
Well yes — but China won’t. It’s a case of been there, done that. America has already gone this route, to no effect. It always leads back to this burning question: What to do about North Korea?
CIA Director Mike Pompeo hinted at a regime change — but the way politicians always hint at a North Korea regime change, by talking in circles.
When asked directly at a recent Aspen Security Forum if his comment about the Department of Defense’s drafting of plans for what “ultimately needs to be achieved” with North Korea meant that this White House was considering regime change, Pompeo dodged.
“As for the regime, I am hopeful we will find a way to separate that regime from this system,” Pompeo said, CNN reported. “The North Korean people I’m sure are lovely people and would love to see him go.”
He also said minutes later that he didn’t consider an ouster of Kim Jong-un an “unadulterated good,” because it left a mystery of “what’s behind door number three” in terms of replacement leadership.
But not everybody is as squirrely when it comes to speaking blunt about North Korea.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton came out a few days ago and pronounced this, on Fox News: “The way you eliminate the North Korea nuclear program is to eliminate North Korea. It’s a hard argument to make, but I think it’s doable.”
The final solution, he said, was to convince China that it’s in China’s best interest to fight for a regime change in North Korea, and unite the North with South Korea. But he then added: It’s going to be tough. Decades of politicians have tried to convince China to act on North Korea. And they’ve largely failed.
This White House, however, may be the final straw for Kim.
In a separate tweet, Haley wrote: “The time for talk is over. The danger the North Korean regime poses to international peace is now clear to all.”
All eyes on North Korea. Wait for it, wait for it. The next ICBM launch is soon coming — but it could very well be the one that breaks the White House’s decades of gridlock on real action.
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