Send “Mad Dog” Mattis to Pyongyang

By Mike Chinoy

Mike Chinoy was a foreign correspondent for CNN for 24 years, serving as the network’s first Beijing bureau chief and as senior Asia correspondent. Currently a Hong Kong-based non-resident senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute, he is the author of four books and the creator of “Assignment China,” a documentary history of American correspondents in China.

Tensions with North Korea are escalating. Pyongyang’s nuclear test on September 3 followed the firing of an intermediate-range missile that flew over Japan, the Trump administration sending stealth F-35 fighters and nuclear-capable B-1 bombers for exercises over South Korea, and South Korea’s defense minister asking whether the U.S. should deploy tactical nuclear weapons in the South. Now, there are indications Pyongyang may be preparing to launch another intercontinental ballistic missile which could reach the continental United States.

Yet there is no evidence that enhanced sanctions will prompt Kim Jong-un to change his behavior, no sign China is prepared to do anything dramatic to intensify its own pressure on Pyongyang, and no indication a heightened U.S. military posture is having a deterrent effect.

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