Is Trump the ‘bad cop’ with NKorea? It may not be working

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2017, file photoSecretary of State Rex Tillerson pauses at the State Department in Washington. If President Donald Trump and hTillerson are playing “good cop, bad cop” with North Korea, it doesn’t appear to be working: Entreaties of diplomacy aren’t yielding meaningful talks and military threats aren’t scaring Pyongyang into halting its nuclear advance. (Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)

WASHINGTON — If President Donald Trump and his top diplomat are playing “good cop, bad cop” with North Korea, it doesn’t appear to be working: Entreaties of diplomacy aren’t yielding meaningful talks, and military threats aren’t scaring Pyongyang into halting its nuclear advance.

Instead, America’s mixed messaging may be increasing the risk of miscalculation by the isolated, communist government, which lacks insight into the Trump administration’s thinking and could mistake brinkmanship for an overt threat of war.

Although American military action could invite devastating consequences for its South Korean ally, Trump has threatened to use military options and offered sometimes apocalyptic visions of the North unless it ends its nuclear and missile testing. North Korea has launched intercontinental ballistic missiles that can potentially strike the U.S. mainland and a month ago conducted its largest ever underground nuclear explosion. It has threatened to explode another nuclear bomb above the Pacific.