Military action by the United States against nuclear-armed North Korea is an “option on the table” if the threat from the rogue regime escalates, Washington’s top diplomat Rex Tillerson said on Friday. The strong comments from the secretary of state, in Asia for his first foray into crisis management, appear to signal a sea change in American policy towards the isolated country.
Tillerson’s tour comes after a missile launch last week that Pyongyang described as a drill for an attack on US bases in Japan. The US has 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea to defend it from the North, but the capital Seoul is within range of Pyongyang’s artillery and analysts believe any conflict could risk rapid escalation and heavy casualties.
Even so, Tillerson said the United States’ “strategic patience” had ended — the stance of the previous administration under Barack Obama. Under that policy, the US ruled out engaging the North until it made a tangible commitment to denuclearisation, hoping that internal stresses in the isolated country would bring about change.