OPINION | Putin, Xi set to play heroes of North Korea crisis
By Alexander Gallo, opinion contributor - 08/11/17 04:20 PM EDT This week, it was reported that the intelligence community now assesses that the North Korean regime, led by Kim Jong Un (KJU), has achieved production of a miniaturized nuclear warhead — providing KJU with the capability to deliver such a warhead on one of his ballistic missile systems.
This is clearly an important inflection point in the advancement of the North Korean nuclear program. As if on cue, shortly after reports of this intelligence assessment surfaced, President Trump issued a stark statement, warning Pyongyang not to make any more threats toward the United States or "face fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Then, only hours later, the North Korean state-run news agency reported that the North Korean military was reviewing operational plans to strike Guam, a U.S. territory. Now, President Trump is saying his “fire and fury” statement “wasn’t tough enough.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a full fledged crisis on our hands — with nukes in the balance. But what’s noteworthy here is that, so far, everyone seems to be playing their expected role.
KJU is actively advancing his regime’s conventional and nuclear capability to strike the U.S. homeland and U.S. interests and is directly threatening the United States with such capability. Check. Trump responds with an escalatory statement and then doubles down. Check. So, perhaps this is not a crisis, just a new normal.
<..snip..>
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/foreign-policy/346236-opinion-putin-xi-set-to-play-heroes-of-korea-crisis
