Kasich: US should be working with allies on North Korea, not threatening war

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) called for the U.S. to work with its allies to handle the North Korean threat, instead of threatening war.

“Instead of threatening a bilateral war between the United States and the North Korea, we should be working with allies — including South Korea and Japan — to threaten increased multilateral pressure to choke the North Korean regime,” Kasich wrote in an op-ed published Monday in The Washington Post.

“While economic sanctions have not proved to be effective yet, they have not been fully exhausted and tested.”{mosads}

Kasich wrote that part of the reason the previous administration was successful in “bringing Iran to the table” was “due to internationally coordinated sanctions.”

“Thankfully, the U.N. Security Council has adopted three rounds of such sanctions this year, including significant measures last week,” Kasich wrote.

He said the U.S. should not be anywhere close to war with North Korea.

“This increasingly hot war of words — including loose talk about the probability of war — does nothing to bring us closer to where we need to be on North Korea, especially when military options short of war remain on the table,” he wrote.

“In fact, with millions of lives at stake, waging a war of words is a distraction from the serious task at hand. Any kind of war — especially nuclear war — should not be an option until all other options are exhausted. And, in the case of North Korea, there are several roads not yet taken.”

At the end of the op-ed, Kasich called for political pundits and politicians to stop predicting odds about the “probability of war.”

“It’s neither an accurate nor a helpful way to treat a complex international challenge,” he wrote.

The resolution aims to cut off about 90 percent of refined petroleum product exports to the country while ensuring the return of North Korean citizens working abroad within 24 months.

North Korea said Sunday the new sanctions were an “act of war” and violate peace and stability in the region.