[Without mentioning Mr. Trump’s “fire and fury” and “lock and load” threats to North Korea, they wrote that the administration was applying “diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a dismantling of the regime’s ballistic-missile programs.”]
By
Choe Sang-Hun
 |
|
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford
Jr., the chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff,
arriving Sunday at Osan
Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.
Credit Andrew
Harnik/Associated Press
|
SEOUL,
South Korea — Emphasizing
diplomacy and sanctions over war, the top American general and South Korea’s
president said on Monday that they hoped to avoid armed conflict with North
Korea, as China vowed to enforce new United Nations penalties.
The developments suggested that officials of
the United States, South Korea and China are seeking to emphasize a message in
Asia of lowering tensions after President Trump’s apocalyptic threats last week
over North Korea’s missile and nuclear testing.
In a meeting with President Moon Jae-in of
South Korea, whose country has been alarmed by Mr. Trump’s threats, Gen. Joseph
F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said military
options were a last resort.
“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,” General Dunford was quoted
as saying in a Korean-language statement released by Mr. Moon’s office after
the meeting. “We are preparing a military option in case such efforts fail.”
General Dunford’s remarks were echoed by
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, who
co-wrote an opinion column posted online Sunday by The Wall Street Journal
asserting that the United States and its allies wanted a peaceful resolution.
Without mentioning Mr. Trump’s “fire and
fury” and “lock and load” threats to North Korea, they wrote that the
administration was applying “diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea to
achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula and a dismantling of the regime’s ballistic-missile programs.”
Before the meeting with General Dunford, Mr.
Moon issued one of his strongest statements yet against armed conflict. “Our
national interest is peace, and there should never be war on the Korean
Peninsula again,” Mr. Moon was quoted as saying in a meeting with his senior
staff. “No matter what it takes, the North Korean nuclear problem must be
resolved peacefully.”
In China, North Korea’s main trading partner,
officials announced that they would begin enforcing tough new United Nations
sanctions against Pyongyang on Tuesday.
General Dunford’s visit to South Korea was
the first of three stops in his trip to the region, which has been roiled by
the exchange of fiery threats between Mr. Trump and the North Korean leader,
Kim Jong-un.
The general has said that the trip is meant
to offer transparency to America’s allies in the region and to prevent any
miscalculation on China’s part about the Pentagon’s intentions. He arrived in
China on Monday night, and will travel to Japan later in the week.
South Koreans, many living within range of
North Korean artillery, were particularly alarmed by Mr. Trump’s threat to
bring down “fire and fury” on the North if Pyongyang continued to threaten the
United States with nuclear missiles.
On his way to Seoul, General Dunford said his
trip was in support of Mr. Tillerson’s diplomatic and economic campaign to
deter North Korea. Even as Mr. Trump has issued one provocative statement after
another against the North, Mr. Tillerson has been reminding Pyongyang that the door
to dialogue is open if the nation halts missile and nuclear tests.
“As a military leader, I have to make sure
that the president does have viable military options in the event that the
diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign fails,” General Dunford told
reporters on his plane. “But even as we develop those options, we are mindful
of the consequences of those options, and that gives us a greater sense of
urgency to make sure we are doing everything we absolutely can to support
Secretary Tillerson’s path.”
The general’s calibrated statement appeared
to be an attempt to calm allies in South Korea while backing up Mr. Trump’s
warnings to the North.
Concern escalated in the Trump administration
about the North’s nuclear threat after the country flight-tested two
intercontinental ballistic missiles last month, the second of which appeared to
have the capacity to reach the American mainland. It is not clear that the
North can accurately target such a missile or build a nuclear warhead that can
survive re-entry into the atmosphere.
This month, Washington persuaded China and
Russia to agree to the toughest United Nations Security Council sanctions to
date against North Korea, which could deprive it of as much as a third of its
external export revenues.
On Monday, China’s Ministry of Commerce and
customs administration announced that the country would begin enforcing the
sanctions on Tuesday, by fully banning imports of aquatic products, coal, iron,
iron ore, lead and lead ore from North Korea. The seafood products it listed as
banned include fish, crustaceans and sturgeon caviar. Seafood, along with coal,
has been a sizable Chinese import from North Korea.
China imported $91 million worth of seafood
from North Korea in the first half of 2017, according to Chinese customs
figures cited by Reuters.
China’s announcement came hours before
General Dunford was scheduled to arrive in Beijing. He was scheduled to meet
with Gen. Fang Fenghui, his Chinese counterpart, during his two-day visit,
Pentagon officials said.
The visit to China was planned well before
the recent North Korea developments, as part of a choreographed series of
visits of top American and Chinese generals to each other’s countries. General
Fang visited Washington in 2014.
In Beijing, General Dunford is expected to
emphasize that Washington plans to complete the deployment of a missile defense
system known as Thaad in South Korea. China has vehemently opposed the
deployment, calling it a threat to Chinese security.
Speaking to South Korea’s National Assembly
on Monday, Defense Minister Song Young-moo said his military hoped to complete
the Thaad deployment by the end of the year.
North Korea showed no sign of dialing down
its rhetoric on Monday. In a statement denouncing annual joint exercises
between the United States and South Korean militaries, which are scheduled to
begin on Aug. 21, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency warned that a
second Korean War would be a “nuclear war.”
“Even if no one wanted it, they would not be
able to prevent a mere accidental spark from triggering a war,” the statement
said.
North Korea strongly objects to the joint
military exercises, calling them a rehearsal for an invasion, and has often
responded to them with weapons tests. China has proposed that the joint
exercises be suspended in exchange for a suspension of the North’s nuclear and
missile tests, but Washington has rejected the idea.
Lee Jin-woo, a spokesman for the South Korean
Defense Ministry, said on Monday that the joint exercises would go ahead as
planned, denying a domestic news media report that they would be scaled down
this year.
The North Korean military has said it will
complete a plan to launch four ballistic missiles in waters around Guam, home
to a major American Air Force base in the Western Pacific, by the middle of
this month, and will then wait for Mr. Kim’s order to proceed. It has also
claimed that 3.5 million young North Koreans have recently volunteered to join
the military to fight the Americans.
In China, the overseas edition of the
People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s main newspaper, said on Monday
that the world had become used to belligerent statements from North Korea, but
had been alarmed to hear similarly aggressive talk from the United States.
An editorial in the paper warned that the
joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea would only
make the situation worse. The overseas edition of the People’s Daily is a
lower-circulation offshoot of the main domestic edition, and its editorials
broadly reflect official thinking.
“It’s to be feared that this will became a
new goad for North Korea, and trigger another round of tit-for-tat
confrontation,” the editorial said, referring to the joint exercises. “It is
not advisable to play chicken on the Korean Peninsula. All sides should be
careful in their words and actions.”
Chris Buckley and Jane Perlez contributed
reporting from Beijing.