Kim Jong Un's North Korea Blasts Trump, Obama Nuclear Policy After US Threatens Military Action

The administration of President Donald Trump and its policy on the North Korean nuclear program is no different from that of former President Barack Obama, according to an op-ed published Monday in a North Korean news outlet. The commentary was likely an attempt to strike a nerve in the current presidency by comparing it to one for which it has continuously tried to undo policies.

"No big differences are found between Obama's ruptured 'strategic patience' policy and the incumbent U.S. administration's (North Korea) policy," the Rodong Sinmun wrote Monday. The news outlet is run by the Workers' Party, to which is North Korean leader Kim Jong Un not only belongs but was elected to be the chairman of last year.

Read: North Korea Likely To Conduct Sixth Nuclear Test Soon

The Rodong Sinmun continued: "Differences, if any, are only the addition of a military pressure to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons (on the Korean peninsula) to Obama's policy. The new U.S. administration follows Obama's failed North Korea policy, although even a stupid animal would not fall into a hole again once it did so."

The U.S. Department of State imposed additional sanctions on North Korea last week, following multiple recent missile launches by Pyongyang that were banned under international law. The sanctions were as part of the Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act.

The op-ed came nearly two weeks after State Department Secretary Rex Tillerson announced the U.S. would not negotiate with North Korea and hinted at military action if Pyongyang doesn't comply with sanctions.

"The policy of strategic patience has ended," Tillerson said in South Korea's capital Seoul on March 17. As the New York Times pointed out, that same phrase was used by the Obama administration and directed at North Korea, a fact that likely prompted the Rodong Sinmun's op-ed.

Read: North Korea Threatens US Over Preemptive Strike

According to a former U.S. ambassador, military action against North Korea is not the right move.

"There are no good military options," Christopher Hill, who served as former President George W. Bush's ambassador to South Korea from 2004 to 2005, said in an interview Sunday. "In the last few years, North Korea's threat has really grown. Now we are seeing them modernize their missile arsenal such that it's quite likely in the near future... North Korea will have a deliverable nuclear weapon. And then the question is, what are we all going to do about that?"