Trump using Japan as foil to pressure North Korea and China: Scholar

US President Donald Trump is using Japan as a foil to pressure both North Korea and China with the threat of a military response that could result in a great tragedy, according to Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on a statement of Trump about North Korea.

On Friday, Trump assured Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the question of North Korea "will be solved,” ahead of a G7 summit that will discuss a series of missile tests carried out by Pyongyang.

"We will be discussing many things including of course North Korea which is very much on our minds," Trump said in the Italian town of Taormina where he held a meeting with Abe at the start of the two-day G7 summit.

‘US waged genocidal war against North Korea’

Etler said, “When it comes to tensions on the Korean peninsula both the US and Japan have been hoisted by their own petard. Ever since the beginning of the US initiated Cold War against the spread of Communism after WW2, the US has done everything in its power to push back against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (aka North Korea) in order to contain the People’s Republic of China.”

“The US at first waged a genocidal war against North Korea in which it leveled the country and killed 20 percent of its population. When it met defeat at the hands of the Korean people and their Chinese allies it refused to sign a peace treaty and ever since has settled for an uneasy truce along the 38th parallel,” he said.

“The US and its surrogates in South Korea and Japan have wanted to use the Korean Peninsula as a spearhead directed against China, as Imperial Japan did prior to and during WW2. The North having suffered immensely from the depredations of US imperialism is rightfully consumed with concern for its defenses against any renewed aggression directed against it by the powers that laid waste to it in the past,” the analyst said.

China, a bulwark against US aggression

“China has ever since the Korean War been a steadfast ally of the DPRK and a bulwark against US attempts at regime change. Even though China has always stood by North Korea through thick and thin and has guaranteed its safety, the North has opted to go its own way and resist global concerns about its nuclear weapons development and deployment,” Etler said.

“While North Korea sees its nuclear weapons and missile programs as part of its natural right for self-defense and self-determination the international community sees it as provocative and destabilizing. China has expressed its opposition to the DPRK’s position and has reluctantly agreed to the sanctions regime imposed on North Korea by the UN,” he stated.

“The US has seized upon North Korea’s defiance as an excuse to up the ante and threaten military action in response. Rather than engage in unconditional six party negotiations to resolve the issues at hand as China has suggested, the US insists that the DPRK freeze its nuclear program before coming back to the negotiating table,” he explained.

Why the North ramping up nuclear missile testing

“The North Korea naturally has responded to US threats of military action by ramping up its nuclear missile testing. The Trump Administration has made overtures to China in order to enlist its support for reining in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. China has only so many options available to do so,” Etler said.

“It has urged the US and South Korea to stop their joint military exercises as a means to convince North Korea to resume negotiations,” he said.  

“At this point it seems that the US is trying the time worn carrot and stick approach, threaten the North with unspecified military action while holding out the possibility of renewed negotiations,” the expert said.

“Trump is using Japan as a foil to pressure both North Korea and China with the threat of a military response that could, as US pentagon chief Mattis has said, result in a tragedy of ‘an unbelievable scale.’ Trump’s rhetoric is in line with his ‘mad man’ policy of brinkmanship which could result in the ‘unimaginable tragedy’ that Mattis has decried. The world hopes that cooler heads prevail,” he said in his concluding remarks. 

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