North Korea Launches Another Missile; State Department Offers No Comment

WASHINGTON, DC — North Korea launched another ballistic missile, officials confirmed Tuesday night, in a series of aggressive gestures raising concerns in the international community.

In response to this action, the State Department released a statement many on Twitter initially took to be a prank.

"North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in the statement. "The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment."

The starkness of the comment, and it's apparent dismissiveness, shocked many observers. There's no formal condemnation of the move, no hint at a potential American response and no context in which Americans can understand these troubling actions from a foreign power.

David Sanger, a national security correspondent for the New York Times, said on Twitter, "I've read a lot of rote reaction statements, but rarely one like this. Could be: We're coming after you. Could be: Forget the whole thing."

The statement falls in line with the department's short history of minimal press interaction and opaque practices. On Tillerson's first trip to Asia, for instance, he only brought one reporter from a conservative outlet along with him in his plane, while others covering the trip had to fly separately and received limited access.

But the statement might represent a strategic, rather than dispositional, shift from the administration. President Trump has repeatedly said that he values unpredictably as a part of his foreign policy strategy and that he doesn't want to frequently share his intentions or plans in his dealings with other nations. This could mean the American people will have to get used to receiving bare-bones press releases and limited information on many such matters of wide public interest.

Photo credit: (stephan)