Trump Knows Striking North Korea Is Last Resort, McCain Says

by Anthony Capaccio and Ilya Arkhipov
April 27, 2017, 5:06 PM EDT

— Senator says president is committed to working with China’s Xi
— ‘Artillery that’s north of Seoul -- that is really of concern’

President Donald Trump is well aware that a preemptive strike against North Korea must be a last resort, in large part because of the artillery Kim Jong Un’s regime could unleash to devastate South Korea’s capital, Senator John McCain said.

“One of the major reasons is because of that artillery that’s north of Seoul -- that is really of concern,” McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday in an interview after the panel heard testimony from Admiral Harry Harris, the chief of the U.S. Pacific Command.

“I know that the president is committed” to “building up this relationship he has” with China’s President Xi Jinping, North Korea’s neighbor and economic lifeline, McCain said.

Trump wrote in a Twitter posting this month that “I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will! U.S.A”

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