President-elect Donald Trump responded to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s Sunday announcement that his country’s military is in the final stages of testing its first intercontinental ballistic missile.
Trump tweeted Monday evening that this “won’t happen.”
North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017
Kim also stated that his goal was “to cope against the vicious threats for nuclear war by the Imperialists.”
China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea. Nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017
Trump previously stated he wants to beef up U.S. nuclear weapon facilities saying back in December, “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”
The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016
Trump’s aspirations may already be helped by a changes and provisions made in the National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA was approved by Congress last November and included major changes by Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks.
One provision called on the military to start “research, development, test and evaluation” of space-based missile defense systems. Additionally, the word “limited” was deleted from the nation’s missile defense policy.
Since 1999, the U.S. had specified that the goal of its missile defense system was to stop a “limited” or small-scale nuclear attack on American soil. The purpose of the “limited” modifier was to keep the U.S. from an arms race in outer space, but the under the radar change happened without much talk of it and Congress dropped the restriction.