On October 16, Markus Garlauskas, the former US National Intelligence Officer for North Korea and nonresident senior fellow with the Asia Security Initiative, did an interview with VOX on his experience and insight on US-North Korea relations. During the interview, Garlauskas points out that though tensions between the US and DPRK were high in 2017, Washington and Pyongyang had come closer to military conflict in the previous year. He also expressed his view that the failure of reaching a deal in Hanoi lies in Kim’s unwillingness to adjust, and that the next administration should not shy away from confronting Kim militarily.
There has to be a willingness to confront Kim militarily — not to initiate war, not to do a bloody nose strike, but basically to make it clear to him that there are limits to what we will tolerate. And we need to make clear that if he crosses into initiating a war, the outcome will be the end of him and his regime. That’s one of the things President Trump said differently than I would have said it, but it needed to be said, frankly, in 2017.
