--- title: Susan Rice: Striking North Korea Would Be 'Catastrophic' description: Former national security adviser Susan Rice warned that launching a pre-emptive war with North Korea would be "foolish and catastrophic" canonical: https://time.com/4896643/susan-rice-north-korea-catastrophic/ author: Feliz Solomon article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-11T02:08:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:57:07.147Z article:section: Politics og:title: Susan Rice: Striking North Korea Would Be 'Catastrophic' og:description: She also cautioned against responding in kind to Pyongyang's fiery rhetoric og:url: https://time.com/4896643/susan-rice-north-korea-catastrophic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt155c2fc4cab87c31/6988d951fb4eac13e6893446/gettyimages-496841584.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2476 og:image:height: 1393 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-RICE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Susan Rice: Striking North Korea Would Be 'Catastrophic' twitter:description: She also cautioned against responding in kind to Pyongyang's fiery rhetoric twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt155c2fc4cab87c31/6988d951fb4eac13e6893446/gettyimages-496841584.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Susan Rice Says Pre-Emptive War With North Korea Would Be 'Catastrophic' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon Aug 11, 2017 2:08 AM UTC  Then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice at the White House in Washington, DC, on Nov. 12, 2015. Then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice at the White House in Washington, DC, on Nov. 12, 2015. Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images by [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon Aug 11, 2017 2:08 AM UTC Former national security adviser Susan Rice [warned](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/10/politics/susan-rice-north-korea/index.html) Thursday that launching a so-called pre-emptive war with North Korea would be “foolish and catastrophic,” as a war of words escalates between President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. “A pre-emptive war, if one were actually thinking of executing that, would be catastrophic,” Rice said on CNN’s _Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer_. Rice, who served as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under former President Barack Obama and later became his top security aide, acknowledged that previous administrations had failed in their efforts to prevent Pyongyang from developing a nuclear arsenal, but cautioned that Trump’s aggressive rhetoric would only serve to provoke Kim Jong Un. Trump [warned](http://time.com/4892102/donald-trump-north-korea-news/) this week that continued threats from North Korea would be met “with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” as Pyongyang warned that it was developing a plan to attack the U.S. territory of Guam, a small Pacific island with an American military presence. Amid criticism that his remarks could exacerbate tensions, Trump [doubled down ](http://time.com/4896078/donald-trump-north-korea-trouble-warning/?xid=homepage)Thursday saying that perhaps his statement “wasn’t tough enough.” **Read More:** [_North Korea Calls President Trump’s ‘Fire and Fury’ Threat a ‘Load of Nonsense’_](http://time.com/4894701/north-korea-donald-trump-fire-fury-load-of-nonsense/) Rice told CNN that despite the president’s provocative language, the White House policy of deterrence differs little from that of previous administrations and is appropriate to the threat posed by North Korea’s continued nuclear progress, weapons testing and verbal threats of taking military action. “The core of what President Trump said today, discounting for the rhetoric, was if North Korea were to attack the United States, and obviously Guam is part of the United States, we would respond with the full force of our capabilities,” Rice said. “That’s common sense. That’s deterrence. And that’s the appropriate approach.” “I think the problem is nobody is clear what the red line is,” Rice said. \[[CNN](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/10/politics/susan-rice-north-korea/index.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4896643/susan-rice-north-korea-catastrophic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4896643/susan-rice-north-korea-catastrophic/"},"headline":"Susan Rice Says Pre-Emptive War With North Korea Would Be 'Catastrophic'","datePublished":"2017-08-11T02:08:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:57:07.147Z","description":"The former national security advisor also cautioned against responding in kind to Pyongyang's fiery rhetoric","url":"https://time.com/4896643/susan-rice-north-korea-catastrophic/","keywords":["North Korea","Foreign Policy","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt155c2fc4cab87c31/6988d951fb4eac13e6893446/gettyimages-496841584.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Feliz Solomon","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt155c2fc4cab87c31/6988d951fb4eac13e6893446/gettyimages-496841584.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-RICE","caption":"US-POLITICS-RICE","creditText":"Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/north-korea/","name":"North Korea"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4896643/susan-rice-north-korea-catastrophic/","name":"Susan Rice Says Pre-Emptive War With North Korea Would Be 'Catastrophic'"}}]}] ```