Pentagon fears giving Trump 'too many options' on N. Korea
President Donald Trump said Friday that he'd wait until the Winter Olympics are over to make an assessment on North Korea.
Exasperated, the U.S. president said 'we have no road left' and this month's Pyeongchang Games will hopefully bulldoze a new pathway to peace on the Korean Peninsula.
'We ran out of road. You know the expression, the road really ended,' Trump said in an Oval Office meet and greet with North Korean defectors. 'But in the meantime we'll get through the Olympics.'
The White House's frustrations with the Pentagon over a smaller than desired list of military options to confront North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un had been revealed the evening before in a New York Times report.
President Donald Trump said Friday that he'd wait until the Winter Olympics are over to make an assessment on North Korea
President Trump meets with North Korean defectors in the Oval Office of the White House today
North Korean defector Lee Hyeonseo gives U.S. President Donald Trump a copy of her memoir during this morning's meeting
The Times report described a wariness within the Pentagon to provide Trump with a comprehensive list out of fear that he'll make a pre-emptive strike on Kim.
For the president's threats to Kim to be credible, though, the options must exist, White House National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster has reportedly communicated to military leadership.
According to the Times, the Pentagon is concerned that Trump is moving in the direction of military action too quickly.
A warning from Trump's expected nominee for U.S. ambassador to South Korea Victor Cha against a 'preventive' military strike that could lead to a 'war that would likely kill tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Americans' was also met with irritation, the report indicated. The White House abandoned its plans to nominate Cha to the vacant position.
Representatives for Defense Secretary James Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford denied that the Pentagon is intentionally holding back recommendations from Trump in requests for comment from the Times.
Col. Patrick S. Ryder, a Dunford spokesman, said that while the talks are privileged, 'I can assure you that General Dunford regularly provides his best military advice in a timely and responsive manner to both senior leaders, to include military options for a wide range of national security challenges.'
The Times said that Trump himself doesn't seem to have grown impatient with the Pentagon, even if senior advisers have.
Trump was fretful on Friday, however, as he discussed the plight of the North Korean defectors and the role of the United States in loosening Kim's death grip on his countrymen.
'These are just great people that have suffered incredibly. There were many, many others like them that have suffered so much. And they were here, and I said...let's tell you a story very quickly,' Trump stated. 'We have others in a different room, as I old you, that are really petrified to be here. Petrified. So it's tough stuff. It's tough stuff.'
A journalist asked Trump about additional actions the United States could take to assist defectors.
'We're doing a lot,' he said. 'We have many administrations that should have acted on this a long time ago...when we weren't in this kind of a position.'
Remarking on the broader conflict with Kim and his pursuit of nuclear powers at all costs, including the health and well being of his people, Trump said, 'We ran out of road. You know the expression, the road really ended.
'They could have done it 12 years ago, they could have done it 20 years ago, they could have done it four years ago and two years ago,' he said. 'We have no road left, so we'll see what happens.
The White House's frustrations with the Pentagon over a smaller than desired list of military options to confront North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un had been revealed the evening before in a New York Times report
'But in the meantime we'll get through the Olympics and maybe something good can come out of the Olympics, who knows,' he added.
North Korea is sending athletes to South Korea for the games that begin a week from today. The sporting competition has led to a temporary detente on the Korean Peninsula.
Trump said he talked to South Korean Prime Minister Moon Jae-in on the phone this morning about the Olympics and the dialogue it has opened up with North Korea.
'And that's a good thing, not a bad thing. And we had a great call,' he said.
The U.S. president said he had a talk with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this morning about North Korea, as well.
'It's a very tricky situation. We're going to find out how it goes. But we think the Olympics will go very nicely,' Trump said. 'And after that, who knows. We'll find out. We're going to find out pretty soon, I suspect.'
President Trump has engaged in saber-rattling with Kim since warning last year that North Korea will be met with 'fire and fury' if it threatens the U.S. He's backed off the hot-toned rhetoric, though, in the lead-up to the games.
Trump said Tuesday in his first-ever State of the Union address that 'no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea.'
'North Korea’s reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland,' he said. 'Past experience has taught us that complacency and concessions only invite aggression and provocation. I will not repeat the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this dangerous position.'
Trump talked about Otto Warmbier, the American student who was sentenced to hard labor in North Korea and returned to the U.S. in a coma. Warmbier died days after he was remitted to the care of his parents, who were in the House gallery for Trump's remarks.
The president also gave a call out to North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho, another guest of his at the joint address to Congress.
'He tried to steal coal from a railroad car to barter for a few scraps of food. In the process, he passed out on the train tracks, exhausted from hunger. He woke up as a train ran over his limbs,' Trump said, 'He then endured multiple amputations without anything to dull the pain. His brother and sister gave what little food they had to help him recover and ate dirt themselves — permanently stunting their own growth.'
Trump said that Seong-ho, now a resident of South Korea, has a new leg but he kept his crutches as a reminder of how far he's come.
'Your great sacrifice is an inspiration to us all,' the president said.