8/10/2017

NORTH KOREA/REX TILLERSON/STATE: “White House aide Sebastian Gorka said Thursday [8-10-17] that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was out of line with remarks he made a day earlier assuring Americans that military action against North Korea is not imminent, telling BBC radio that it was ‘nonsensical’ for the nation’s chief diplomat to speak on military issues…
Aboard his aircraft Wednesday en route to Guam, the U.S. territory in the Pacific that North Korea threatened this week to destroy with an ‘enveloping fire,’ Tillerson told reporters that ‘Americans should sleep well at night’ and that ‘I do not believe that there is any imminent threat.’
The secretary’s efforts to tamp down rhetoric came after a warning from President Donald Trump, who said North Korea would face ‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’ if it continues to threaten the United States.
Contrary to what Tillerson said, Gorka seemed to suggest to the BBC that a military conflict with North Korea is a distinct possibility. Asked by an interviewer whether North Korea should expect an attack if its actions are understood as threatening, Gorka seemed to imply just that…
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert declined on Thursday to directly address Gorka’s comments because she said she became aware of them only shortly before the daily news briefing and had not personally heard them.”

-Louis Nelson, “Gorka: ‘Nonsensical’ for Tillerson to discuss military matters,” Politico, Aug. 10, 2017 07:25pm