A naval blockade of North Korea, while a controversial option, may be what's needed to force stop the country's increasing aggressions before it's too late, retired Adm. James Stavridis said on Monday.
Stavridis also told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program that he believes the rest of the world is starting to pay more attention to what President Donald Trump's administration has planned for North Korea and less about his "goofy" tweets, after the president taunted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by nicknaming him "Rocket Man" in a tweet Sunday.
Stavridis, a former NATO Europe commander, who is now the dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and serves as an MSNBC military consultant, said a naval blockade would be a "middle position" between a military strike and doing nothing.
However, it would be controversial because there would be the potential for confrontation with Chinese and Russian ships, he said, but he added that most merchant ships in the world are flagged to countries friendly with the United States.
The United States could bring in allies such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, said Stavridis, and he is "quite confident" NATO members would participate.
"We need to get this conversation off the United States versus North Korea and make it the world versus North Korea, and a maritime operation would be the way to do that," he commented.
"We have the logistic capability to do this," said Stavridis. "It would cut off the economic component, other than the Chinese border, which we would have to continue to deal with China on. I think it's time to do something as opposed to kind of waving our hands at the problem."
He also said that he believes using cyber warfare could help alleviate the situation.
"You could use it selectively in ways that would undermine the confidence in North Korea's ability to launch the missiles," said Stavridis. "Part of what he's doing is salesmanship. He wants to be able to sell that technology abroad. I think there are real advantages to cyber, alongside the missile defense and alongside a maritime option."
Stavridis said he does believe that China is leaning more toward cooperation.
"At the end of the day, they don't want to unify the Korean Peninsula," said Stavridis. "They don't want war, refugees, and to break the global economy. I feel the dial moving, but it's certainly not as dramatic as of yesterday."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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