Just hours before his
State of the Union address
on Tuesday —
“North Korea’s reckless pursuit
of nuclear missiles
could very soon
threaten our homeland.”
— President Trump’s administration
dropped its plan
to nominate Victor D. Cha
for the ambassador
to South Korea.
Cha had a fallout with the
administration over a plan
to carry out a preventive
military strike
against North Korea.
He’s against what he called
a “bloody nose” strategy
in a Washington Post op-ed.
He argues the administration
is pushing for it.
As part of a reoccurring
annual military exercise,
the U.S. and South
Korea conducted drills
that simulated strikes on North
Korean nuclear
and missile testing sites.
And the
U.S. military itself
has been quietly prepping
for a last resort
war with North Korea.
The idea behind the
bloody-nose strategy
is to use military force
against North Korea,
but not so destructive
that it would
trigger a retaliatory strike.
The most obvious target
would be a nuclear site,
but many of North Korea’s
missile-building sites
are unknown and others are
buried too deep underground
to reach.
Proponents argue that
an early limited strike
could make North Korea
think twice about continuing
its nuclear program.
On the other hand, it could
be that floating an airstrike
combined with
saber-rattling rhetoric
is just an elaborate
psychological operation
designed to get inside
Kim Jong-un’s head.
But Cha and other
experts have previously
contended that a military
confrontation is ill advised.
“This is not firing
59 Tomahawk missiles
at an air base in Syria,
or dropping a bomb
on a set of bunkers
in Afghanistan.
This would be — this would be a
conflict like we have not seen.”
His fear is that a
bloody nose could quickly
turn into a full-blown war.
