UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL TO MEET AT 10:00 A.M. EDT
by Sharon Rondeau
(Sep. 4, 2017) — On Monday morning, U.S. State Department spokesman Heather Nauert appeared on “Fox & Friends” speaking about the choices the U.S. and the world are reviewing in regard to punishing the pariah nation of North Korea for continuing its nuclear program.
On Sunday, North Korea conducted what was likely a nuclear test with a hydrogen bomb which first registered as an earthquake. The test was its sixth over the last decade.
North Korea claimed in January of last year that it had detonated a hydrogen bomb.
On August 28, North Korea launched a missile which sailed over northern Japan and landed in the Sea of Japan without causing harm to humans.
South Korea then carried out a “live-fire” drill by launching two missiles toward “targets” locate in the Sea of Japan which reportedly hit their mark.
A former Fox News reporter, Nauert told the three co-hosts that the options the Trump administration is considering our economic, military, and diplomatic, the latter of which is the focus of the State Department.
At 10 AM EDT on Monday, an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council will convene to discuss the latest developments in regard to North Korea. The meeting was requested by the U.S, Japan, Britain, France and South Korea.
On Sunday, Secretary of Defense James Mattis met with President Trump, then gave remarks outside the White House stating that there are “many military options” under scrutiny as a possible response to North Korea’s continued nuclear aggression.
He said that any attack waged against the U.S. or its allies would be met with a “massive military response.”
On Sunday Trump had tweeted, and Nauert expounded upon, harsher sanctions which would impose a moratorium on U.S. trade with “any country doing business with North Korea.”
Overnight, China, North Korea’s most significant trading partner, said that possibility is “unacceptable and unfair.” In tweets and other public statements over the past few months, Trump has expressed growing frustration with China for what he sees as their inadequate effort to curb North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
On Monday morning, CBS News reported that South Korea believes North Korea is planning another “missile launch” to coincide with its official statehood anniversary on September 9.
Nauert said that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is looking at ways to involve nations around the world to participate in more severe economic sanctions against North Korea.
Nauert expressed optimism that diplomacy could prove effective in deterring North Korea from becoming a full-fledged aggressor to its neighbors in Asia and the rest of the world.
As a repressive, communist state, North Korea has a large number of political prisoners and is notorious for its brutal prison camps where such “enemies of the state” are subject to heinous forms of torture.
North Korea is home to approximately 25.4 million people. Starvation and malnutrition have plagued the communist country currently ruled by dictator Kim Jong-Un.
NK’s ace in the hole is the group I will call the “distressed elites”. Only when the distressed elites, the owners of the many businesses making up the Chinese and global economy, have more to lose than gain by allowing NK to continue will there be any change.
Aside from President Trump and a few others, there is no serious interest in truly fixing this problem. Only when their self interest is at stake will they change. They have spent too many decades betting for China. This is what we get.