Trump's Korean Cold War

How the U.S. can contain and deter the nuclear North

- Bill Powell

DONALD TRUMP’S North Korea problem just won’t go away. In early September, Pyongyang detonated what it claims was a hydrogen bomb and is reportedly preparing for yet another intercontinental missile test.

The good news: There’s a semblance of a savvy strategy emerging from the U.S. and its allies in Asia—one that should be familiar to anyone who lived through the Cold War: containment and deterrence. The question now is whether Trump can make this plan work—without Chinese interference or his usual self-defeating blunders.

Consider the most recent developments. After the North’s latest missile tests, both Japan and South Korea said they would deploy their missile defense systems. Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called for a vote on tougher sanctions against Pyongyang, to contain its nuclear expansion. And Defense Secretary James Mattis, in carefully chosen words, said a North Korean attack on the U.S. or its allies would be met with a “massive” response. Trump has repeatedly said that “all options” are available for dealing with North Korea, and the Pentagon has provided military options for the president to consider. But a pre-emptive strike remains the very last option, say administration sources, who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Sound familiar? Call it Cold War light. North Korea isn’t the Soviet Union. It doesn’t have the power, let alone the imperial ambition. But to Jeffrey Bader, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who ran Asia policy on the Obama administration’s National Security Council (NSC), that doesn’t mean U.S. strategy to counter Pyongyang needs to differ from the one that ultimately defeated Moscow.