Susan Walsh / AP
Trump's National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster laid out the way the U.S. is thinking about the North Korea problem Wednesday in three main points:
- "The North Korea problem is not a problem between North Korea and the United States. It's a problem between North Korea and China — and the world."
- A positive gain in the last few months has been "Chinese leadership's recognition that China does have a great deal of control over that situation mainly through the powers of the economic…relationship" with North Korea. This seems to diverge from Trump's stance that China has tried to exert influence but fallen short.
- "Denuclearization of the peninsula is the only appropriate and acceptable" solution.
Read more from Axios' Expert Voices on what the U.S. can do about North Korea, here.
On NATO: McMaster affirmed Trump is "absolutely committed to" the mutual defense protocol, known as Article Five.
On Afghanistan: McMaster said the Taliban is taking advantage of the disconnect between military action and political action in Afghanistan. He noted the previous approach of saying "let's talk to you about a political solution…but we're leaving" made little sense to him. "How does that work?"
On Russia: McMaster said the U.S. needs more tools to confront Russia's destabilizing behavior towards the U.S., including in cyberspace.
On budget: McMaster dodged a question about USAID and State Department budget cuts.