of the Deal and studied other interviews and books by and about Trump. (During his June 2017 trip to North Korea, his fourth, Dennis Rodman had given his interlocutors a copy of the book to present to Kim.) Instead of backing down, Kim upped the ante, perhaps because he understood Trump’s tactics based on his readings and on the president’s tens of thousands of tweets. Or Kim might have been planning on demonstrating his capabilities in a highly provocative manner regardless of who was president of the United States. Or maybe he was acting out of his own emotions, a knee-jerk reaction to being challenged so publicly. His motivations for escalating tensions were probably driven by all of these factors. As stronger sanctions piled up and squeezed North Korea’s ability to raise hard currency, the United States and South Korea conducted unprecedented military exercises to show how quickly the allies could respond with potentially devastating consequences for Kim if he dared to make real his threats to hit Japan, South Korea, the United States, and Guam with a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile.
Kim showed little inclination to concede, even amid Trump’s tweets and taunts. In August 2017, after testing its second ICBM, North Korea threatened to “ruthlessly take strategic measures involving physical actions,” and to punish the United States. The pair of incendiary comments President Trump made in response alarmed Korea watchers, national security experts, and the public from Washington to Los Angeles, to Seoul, Tokyo, and across European capitals. While at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump told reporters, “North Korea best not make any more threats,” adding that they “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” a statement that The Washington Post called “his harshest language yet.” A few days later, Trump went further, hinting at the potential for a military strike against North Korea, when he tweeted, “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”
Trump’s comments sent a ripple of fear through the region and exacerbated an already precarious situation. Russia boosted its air defense system in its far east, Japan deployed its missile interception system, and South Korea’s President Moon said, “There must be no more war on the Korean peninsula. Whatever ups and downs we face, the North Korean nuclear situation must be resolved peacefully.” In China, an editorial in the state-run Global Times cautioned that “if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral,” in a signal to Pyongyang that it would not come to its aid if it provoked a military conflict. But the editorial also warned that “if the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so.” Chinese president Xi also urged Trump to exercise restraint during a phone call that took place a day after the tweet.
Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials tried to calm the frayed nerves of the American public and East Asian allies. Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis affirmed the United States’ commitment to peaceful resolution through the fall and winter of 2017, even as President Trump issued belligerent comments that focused on threats rather than dialogue. At the U.N. General Assembly on September 19, two weeks after North Korea had conducted its sixth, most powerful nuclear test, Trump introduced the mocking “Rocket Man” moniker. He stated that the United States will “totally destroy North Korea” if it is forced to defend itself and its allies. “Rocket Man” Kim “is on a suicide mission for himself,” Trump said, as international leaders drew a sharp breath at the escalatory rhetoric. In October, he tweeted, “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man….Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!” Hours later he added, “Being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now?”
Yet the muddled messaging on U.S. intentions toward North Korea, with some officials highlighting peaceful diplomacy while the president was expressing his willingness to use military force, belied what was in fact a convergence of views within the administration on the threat that North Korea posed. The National Security Strategy (NSS) from December 2017, a document that the executive branch