Dousing the Fire & Fury: Mixed Signals from Trump Administration to Kim

North Korea Communist party

Top Cabinet officials sought to dial back the rhetoric while still pushing a strong message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un following President Donald Trump’s vow that threats to the United States from Pyongyang would be met with “fire and fury.”

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday looked to reframe the president’s comments with a call to North Korea to de-escalate the situation and a stark warning that the country risks “the end of its regime and the destruction of its people” if it does not “stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

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