Donald Trump has been forced to confront North Korean madman Kim Jong Un.
Barack Obama failed to contain the tyrant and now it’s up to the Trump administration to resolve this nuclear crisis.
Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis said the five words that hinted at how Trump planned to deal with North Korea’s nuclear program.
Mattis declared North Korea was a “threat to the entire world” and that the entire world would need to unite to force Kim Jong Un to give up his country’s rogue nuclear weapons program.
The Department of Defense reported Mattis saying in Hawaii:
“The regime of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un remains a danger to the world, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said yesterday in Honolulu, while emphasizing diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.
The goal remains the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Mattis told reporters at U.S. Pacific Command’s headquarters at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, with South Korea Minister of Defense Song Young-moo.
“The Kim regime is a threat to the entire world,” Mattis said. “It’s an international problem that requires an international solution.”
He noted three unanimous United Nations Security Council Resolutions on North Korea.
“Our response to this threat remains diplomacy led, backed up with military options available to ensure that our diplomats are understood to be speaking from a position of strength,” the secretary explained.”
The Trump administration has shown success in this regard.
It has been able to negotiate punishing new sanctions, and they are beginning to take its toll on the Hermit Kingdom.
Fox News reported that North Korea was engaging in peace talks with South Korea because the sanctions are bankrupting the country:
“Kim Jong Un’s trigger-happy antics have nearly depleted a critical slush fund the North Korean despot uses to run his isolated country — and the Hermit Kingdom’s participation in the upcoming Winter Olympics is merely a scheme to refill his coffers, according to a report.
Two Chinese sources with ties to top North Korean government officials told Radio Free Asia that Kim has nearly exhausted his slush fund due to missile and nuclear weapon and tests, as well as vanity projects, such as the much-publicized Masikryong Ski Resort.
“Due to Kim Jong Un’s extravagant spending, the slush fund from his father, Kim Jong Il, is running out,” one of the sources told the news agency. “It won’t be easy to control North Korea’s high-level executives, who are [cunning] like raccoons.”
The source said he is “well-acquainted” with Office No. 39, a shadowy organization under the ruling North Korean Workers’ Party that generates up to a billion dollars annually for Kim and his cronies through illicit activities, including counterfeiting and drug production.”
In addition, the sanctions depleting North Korea’s financial resources have forced Kim Jong Un to cut back on his winter military exercises.
Mattis has said North Korea’s problem is a threat to the world that requires united action.
In the first year of his administration, Trump has made significant progress in rallying other nations – specifically China – to impose crippling financial sanctions on North Korea.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this story.