{"id":48623,"date":"2017-08-09T13:46:46","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T13:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/08\/09\/trump-touts-nuke-strength-as-tillerson-urges-calm-on-north-korea\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:58:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:58:38","slug":"trump-touts-nuke-strength-as-tillerson-urges-calm-on-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2017\/08\/09\/trump-touts-nuke-strength-as-tillerson-urges-calm-on-north-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump touts nuke strength as Tillerson urges calm on North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump declared the U.S. nuclear arsenal \u201cfar stronger and more powerful than ever before,\u201d even as his top diplomat was working to calm the North Korea crisis and insisting there wasn\u2019t \u201cany imminent threat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a series of early-morning tweets Wednesday, Trump reaffirmed his threat from a day earlier by reposting video of him warning that Pyongyang would be \u201cmet with fire and fury like the world has never seen\u201d if it made more threats to the U.S. Then he said that his first order as president had been to \u201crenovate and modernize\u201d the U.S. nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!\u201d Trump tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear what evidence the president had, if any, to support his claim about the nuclear force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump did issue an executive order in his first days in office calling for a review to ensure the U.S. nuclear deterrent is \u201cmodern, robust, flexible, resilient, ready\u201d and appropriately tailored for 21st century threats. The White House has not detailed any findings from that evaluation. A modernization effort started by former President Barack Obama is in the early stages, but the force is essentially unchanged from the way Trump inherited it on Jan. 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Schwartz, an independent analyst of nuclear weapons issues, called the boast \u201cpatently absurd.\u201d He wrote on Twitter that \u201cliterally nothing has happened in the last 201 days to increase the overall power of the US nuclear arsenal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only hours before Trump\u2019s tweets, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged calm and said Americans should have \u201cno concerns\u201d despite the exchange of threats between the president and North Korea. Aboard his plane as he flew home from Asia, Tillerson insisted the developments didn\u2019t suggest the U.S. was moving closer to a military option to dealing with the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmericans should sleep well at night,\u201d Tillerson said. He added: \u201cNothing that I have seen and nothing that I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mixed messages from Tillerson and Trump put the onus on the North Koreans to decide how to interpret the latest missives from the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In more tranquil terms than Trump, Tillerson sought to explain the thinking behind Trump\u2019s warning. He said the president was trying to send a strong and clear message to North Korea\u2019s leader so that there wouldn\u2019t be \u201cany miscalculation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat the president is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un can understand, because he doesn\u2019t seem to understand diplomatic language,\u201d Tillerson said. \u201cI think the president just wanted to be clear to the North Korean regime on the U.S. unquestionable ability to defend itself.\u201d He said the U.S. \u201cwill defend itself and its allies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comments put Tillerson once again in the role of translating the president\u2019s aggressive rhetoric into more diplomatic terms, and of working to minimize the chances of public panic. In fact, Tillerson argued that North Korea\u2019s escalating threats indicated it was feeling the pressure from a successful U.S. strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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There is breaking news out of North Korea. According to The Washington Post the controversial country is in the process of developing miniature nuclear warheads, with the capability to fit inside their missiles. The information was obtained by “The Post” from confidential intelligence reports. The news comes in the wake of growing concerns surrounding an evolving North Korean military threat. The latest news indicates North Korea could be advancing far more rapidly than many experts had predicted. U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to comment on the latest news of this developed technology.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Tillerson spoke to reporters as he returned from Malaysia to Washington, stopping along the way in Guam. Hours earlier, North Korea\u2019s army had said in a statement it was exploring plans for attacking the tiny U.S. territory, which houses U.S. military bases and is a common refueling stop for U.S. government aircraft traversing the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tillerson said he never considered re-routing his trip from Malaysia so as to avoid stopping in Guam. Though he insisted there was no imminent threat, he noted that even if there were, \u201cthe North Korean missile capability can point in many directions, so Guam is not the only place that would be under threat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t