South Korea’s Leader Bluntly Warns U.S. Against Striking North
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/world/asia/south-korea-moon-jae-in-trump.html
SEOUL, South Korea — With his public alarmed by President Trump’s recent threats to
North Korea, President Moon Jae-in of
South Korea issued an unusually blunt rebuke to the United States on Tuesday, warning that any unilateral military action against the North over its
nuclear weapons program would be intolerable..... “No one should be allowed to decide on a military action on the Korean Peninsula without South Korean agreement,” Mr. Moon said in a nationally televised speech.....
..... Mr. Moon’s pushback was the latest indication that Mr. Trump’s unorthodox approach to foreign policy, coupled with Pyongyang’s rapid progress toward its goal of nuclear missiles that can reach the mainland United States, was putting new strain on the longstanding alliance. And it underscored how Mr. Trump’s volatile language is sowing division with an ally whose help would be vital to the success of any American military campaign on the divided peninsula.
..... Many South Koreans have seethed in recent days over what they considered irresponsible statements from American leaders about the possibility of war, particularly since comments by Senator Lindsey Graham were widely reported here,.. “If thousands die, they’re going to die over there — they’re not going to die here,”
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