WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump says that \u201cTalking is not the answer\u201d when it comes to North Korea. And he\u2019s claiming the U.S. has been paying North Koreans what he calls \u201cextortion money\u201d for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years,\u201d Trump tweeted Wednesday morning, adding: \u201cTalking is not the answer!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tweet comes on the heels of the North\u2019s recent missile test over Japan, a close American ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s tweet did not spell out what he meant by \u201cextortion\u201d in the current standoff over North Korea\u2019s nuclear program, and the White House did not immediately respond to questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
North Korea has in the past temporarily halted nuclear development when the U.S. and others provided food aid or other types of compensation. But the North hasn\u2019t been making such demands, at least publicly, since Trump came into office. Instead, it has been focused on finishing its decades-long effort to master the technology for fitting a nuclear warhead on a missile that can striking the U.S. mainland, calling such capability essential for its national defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s assessment about the need for dialogue also appears at odds with his top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had in recent weeks been softening the conditions for a possible, formal dialogue with Pyongyang. The U.S. also has been maintaining a diplomatic back channel with North Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump offered a surprisingly subdued response to Pyongyang\u2019s latest missile test Tuesday, avoiding a repeat of his bombastic warnings earlier this month of a potential military confrontation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonetheless, U.S. officials announced Wednesday morning that they had conducted a missile defense test that resulted in the successful intercept of a medium-range ballistic missile off the coast of Hawaii. The test was conducted by the Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy sailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are working closely with the fleet to develop this important new capability, and this was a key milestone in giving our Aegis BMD ships an enhanced capability to defeat ballistic missiles in their terminal phase,\u201d Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves said in a statement. \u201cWe will continue developing ballistic missile defense technologies to stay ahead of the threat as it evolves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Associated Press writer Brad Klapper contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n President Donald Trump says that \u201ctalking is not the answer\u201d when it comes to North Korea. And he\u2019s claiming the U.S. has been paying North Koreans what he calls \u201cextortion money\u201d for decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[5191],"class_list":["post-38974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4737U5SB3NGUNNAEXUFOQJFYSU","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2017\/08\/30\/trump-says-talking-is-not-the-answer-regarding-north-korea\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n