Politics
11:29, 08-Nov-2017
Trump warns DPRK: Do not underestimate us, do not try us
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US President Donald Trump said he wanted to achieve “peace through strength” as he launched a strong critique of the “cruel dictatorship” of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) regime on Wednesday.
Trump offered Pyongyang "a path to a better future," but warned: “Do not underestimate us, and do not try us.”
During a short address to South Korea’s National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday morning, Trump placed the US-S. Korea alliance in a historical context while charting the “brutal contrast” in economic fortunes of the DPRK and S. Korea since 1953.
US President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Seoul,
S. Korea, on November 8, 2017. /Reuters Photo
US President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Seoul, S. Korea, on November 8, 2017. /Reuters Photo
“America does not seek conflict or confrontation, but we will never run from it,” he said. “History is filled with discarded regimes that have foolishly tested US resolve.”
The speech, targeted at multiple audiences, was set up by the White House as Trump’s main opportunity to address the DPRK issue during his five-nation tour of Asia.
The US president said the DPRK was “a hell that no person deserves” but the US was willing to offer a “path to a better future.” He added the first step was for Pyongyang to stop threats and give up its nuclear program, and urged all countries to come together to increase pressure.
“The regime has interpreted America’s past restraint as weakness. This would be a fatal miscalculation. This is a very different administration than the US has had in the past.”
“The weapons you’re acquiring are not making you safer, they are putting your regime in grave danger,” he added in a remark directed squarely at Pyongyang.
The US president attacked the “prison state” of the DPRK, criticizing the labor practices and living conditions for ordinary people. He punctuated his criticisms of the “horror of life” in the country with a series of specific personal stories.
US President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Seoul, S. Korea, on November 8, 2017. /Reuters Photo
US President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the National Assembly in Seoul, S. Korea, on November 8, 2017. /Reuters Photo
Trump added that the economic success of S. Korea was the “greatest cause of anxiety alarm and even panic” in Pyongyang.
He said he was spending hundreds of millions of US dollars rebuilding the military, adding: “I want peace through strength.”
The US president noted that the three largest aircraft carriers in the world were positioned in the Western Pacific, and US nuclear submarines were “appropriately positioned."
“In the end we will work things out far better than anyone understands or even appreciates,” he added. “I know the ROK will be a faithful ally of the US very long into the future.”
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