US President Donald Trump has told the UN General Assembly that America would destroy North Korea if forced to defend itself or its allies.
In his debut speech, he mocked North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, saying: “Rocket man is on a suicide mission.”
North Korea has tested nuclear bombs and missiles in defiance of the UN.
The American leader also attacked Iran, saying it was a “corrupt dictatorship” which was intent on destabilising the Middle East.
He called on the government in Tehran to cease supporting terrorism and again criticised the Obama-era deal over Iran’s nuclear programme, which he called an embarrassment.
In other parts of his speech he said the US could “no longer be taken advantage of or enter one-sided deals”
He said the crisis in Venezuela, which is led by a leftwing government hostile to the US, was “unacceptable” and the America could not “stand by and watch”
He denounced socialism as an ideology, saying it had only brought “anguish and devastation and failure.”
President Trump’s speech was at one and the same time an eloquent exposition of his doctrine of “America First” and some fulsome (and perhaps unexpected) praise for the United Nations as a body that can bring together these sovereign states to tackle the world’s problems.
In contrast to the focus on globalisation that has driven so much of foreign policy discussion since the 1990s, Mr Trump saw national sovereignty as the main pillar of the international system.
There was a nod to the old axis of evil theme.
He opposed “the righteous many” to “the wicked few”, his rogues’ gallery taking in a predictable cast of North Korea, Iran and Venezuela.
Nonetheless Trump’s world view contained many contradictions.
Where exactly is the boundary between national sovereignty and collective action? And does America’s new-found foreign policy pragmatism extend just to calling for the return of democracy in Iran and Venezuela or actually for doing something practical about it?
Washington has repeatedly warned North Korea over its weapons tests, which violate UN Security Council resolutions.
The crisis worsened last month when the North announced plans to test missiles around the US Pacific territory of Guam.
“If [the US] is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Mr Trump said.
President Trump’s threat to “totally destroy” North Korea is implausible, according to Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the New York think tank the Council on Foreign Relations.
“I actually am very sceptical,” he told the BBC.
“I think the folks in the Pentagon when they look at military options are just aghast at the potential loss of life that could occur with at a minimum hundreds of thousands of South Koreans killed in Seoul.
“And I’m sure that [for] the South Korean government, the last thing on their mind right now is the notion that the United States should launch an attack, a pre-emptive attack of some sort on North Korea.”
