Here is how Trump should respond: Take out the test site from which the North Koreans launched the missile toward Japan — just like he struck the military base in Syria from which the Assad regime had launched a chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians.
Then, as I recently suggested in the Washington Post, Trump should declare North Korea a ballistic missile “no-fly zone” and a nuclear weapons “no-test zone.” He should warn the North Koreans that any further attempts to launch a ballistic missile will be met with a targeted military strike either taking out the missile on the launch pad or blowing it up in the air using missile defense technology. And any further attempt to test a nuclear weapon will be met with a targeted strike taking out the test site and other related nuclear facilities.
So long as North Korea does not retaliate, Trump should assure Pyongyang that he will take no further military action against the regime. However, if North Korea does retaliate, then the United States reserves the right to, as Trump put it to the UN General Assembly, “totally destroy North Korea.”
The bottom line is that there is no negotiating with North Korea. There is no diplomatic solution that is possible with Kim Jong Un in office. And so long as Pyongyang can launch missiles and test nuclear devices with impunity, they hold the initiative and are running the show on the Korean Peninsula. Trump should take control of the situation away from Pyongyang by unilaterally ending their nuclear and ballistic missile testing program. As he does so, he can continue to tighten sanctions, which are starting to hurt, and encourage those around Kim to overthrow him with promises that Trump will negotiate an end to North Korea’s isolation if Kim’s successors are willing to verifiably disarm and dismantle their nuclear program.
But we cannot allow North Korea to continue to act with impunity. They will not stop unless they are forced to do so. Trump has the power to stop them. He should use it.
