In a sharp contrast to President Donald Trump’s threats of fire and fury, America’s top general emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution in North Korea after meeting with South Korea’s president today.
“The United States military’s priority is to support our government’s efforts to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through diplomatic and economic pressure,” said General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as reported by The New York Times. “We are preparing a military option in case such efforts fail.”
Charles Sennott, executive director of The GroundTruth Project, said Trump should follow his top general’s lead.
“There’s a reason that Democratic and Republican administrations in the White House have played the long game for diplomacy on this, because that region is just too volatile to allow this to get out of hand,” Sennott said. “We have to continue with diplomacy. Diplomacy first.”
Sennott explained that many analysts believe that Kim Jong Un’s main motivation is staying inpower, and that his focus on the development of nuclear weapons is a way to fend off world leaders that may try to remove him.
“This is a very paranoid, small country,” Sennott said.
Sennott also criticized more hawkish voices calling for the president to be more aggressive on North Korea.
“It’s time for the president to start listening to the adults in the room,” Sennott said.
Click the audio link above to hear more from Charles Sennott.
