"We are literally at the point where we have to hope that a
guy who is obviously crazy, Kim Jong-un, is less crazy than the U.S.
President."
Following North Korea's announcement on Tuesday that it had for the first time successfully
tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)—one it claimed could
"target any part of the world"—President Donald Trump continued his
bizarre use of social media as a weapon by launching a series of tweets
described by commentators as "insane," "unintelligible," and "scary as hell."
"Does
this guy have anything better to do with his life?"
Trump wrote,
referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, before casually
floating the idea that "perhaps
China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for
all!"
Experts were unsure whether the launch actually demonstrated the
missile's capacity to reach "any part of the world."
"It appears the test was successful. If launched on a standard angle, the missile could have a range of more than 8,000 km," Kim Dong-yub, a military expert at Kyungnam University's Institute of Far Eastern Studies in Seoul," told Reuters. "But we have to see more details of the new missile to determine if North Korea has acquired ICBM technology."
As CNN noted,
Kim Jong-un appears to have timed the missile launch "for maximum
political effect, giving the order to fire on the eve of the July 4 holiday,
just days after US President Donald Trump spoke with Japanese and Chinese
leaders about the North Korea threat and before this week's G20 meeting."
That Trump so quickly fell for the bait alarmed analysts and
lawmakers, who argued that the president's erratic behavior could further
escalate an already deeply troubling situation.
"North Korea clings to nukes [because] it is paranoid it
will be invaded," wrote Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.).
"Using words like 'end' is exactly the wrong approach."
North Korea's neighbors, meanwhile, called for calm and restraint.
"I have to reiterate that the current situation in the
Korean Peninsula is complicated and sensitive," said Geng
Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We hope
all sides concerned can remain calm and restrained so that tensions can be
eased as soon as possible."
Given Trump's track record over just six months in
office—including his recent "deranged"
attacks on the American media—some argued that such restraint will likely not
come from the White House.
Former State Department official Laura Rosenberger, who worked
specifically on issues related to North Korea, warned that
Trump is "playing with fire here—nuclear fire."
"Picking a Twitter fight with a nuclear-armed dictator is
not wise—this is not reality TV anymore," Rosenberger concluded.
"He could literally get us into a war with his tweets."
