--- title: Steve Bannon: 'There's No Military Solution' to North Korea description: White House chief strategist Steve Bannon does not believe there is a military solution to North Korea in regards to its nuclear program canonical: https://time.com/4904066/steve-bannon-north-korea-military-solution/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-17T00:46:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T17:01:40.449Z article:section: Politics og:title: Steve Bannon: 'There's No Military Solution' to North Korea og:description: The White House chief strategist appeared to contradict President Trump's "fire and fury" comments og:url: https://time.com/4904066/steve-bannon-north-korea-military-solution/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85877355c61d86bc/6988d768196cf46b41041345/gettyimages-635488650.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 170727—Steve Bannon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Steve Bannon: 'There's No Military Solution' to North Korea twitter:description: The White House chief strategist appeared to contradict President Trump's "fire and fury" comments twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85877355c61d86bc/6988d768196cf46b41041345/gettyimages-635488650.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Steve Bannon: 'There's No Military Solution' to North Korea by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Aug 17, 2017 12:46 AM UTC  Steve Bannon, chief strategist for U.S. President Donald Trump, left, listens during a news conference in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 15, 2017. Steve Bannon, chief strategist for U.S. President Donald Trump, left, listens during a news conference in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 15, 2017.Pete Marovich—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Aug 17, 2017 12:46 AM UTC White House chief strategist [Steve Bannon](http://time.com/4900993/steve-bannons-future-is-unclear/) does not believe there is a military solution to North Korea in regards to its [nuclear weapons program.](http://time.com/4900826/north-korea-wont-attack-guam/) Bannon on Tuesday called journalist Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of left-wing publication _The American Prospect_, [telling him](http://prospect.org/article/steve-bannon-unrepentant) to “forget” the possibility of warfare with North Korea during a wide-ranging interview. “There’s no military solution \[to North Korea’s nuclear threats\], forget it,” Bannon said. “Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.” Bannon’s comments appeared to contradict President Donald Trump’s [comments last week](http://time.com/4896078/donald-trump-north-korea-trouble-warning/) in which he warned that North Korea would “be met with fire and the fury like the world has never seen” should it continue to threaten the United States. Bannon added that the U.S. is at “economic war with China,” though he would consider a deal with China to remove American troops from the Korean peninsula in exchange for China freezing North Korea’s nuclear program. But since Bannon feels such an agreement would be unlikely, he has been campaigning for the Trump administration to take a stricter stance on trade with China. “To me, the economic war with China is everything,” Bannon said. “And we have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, ten years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we’ll never be able to recover.” Bannon is reportedly in danger of being fired by Trump, with the a number of advisors urging the President to fire him, [according to the New York _Times_.](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/politics/steve-bannon-trump-white-house.html?smid=tw-share&%5Fr=0) But during a press conference Tuesday, Trump called Bannon a “good man” before once again [leaving the door open for speculation.](http://time.com/4902506/steve-bannon-trump-white-house/) “We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon,” the President said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4904066/steve-bannon-north-korea-military-solution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4904066/steve-bannon-north-korea-military-solution/"},"headline":"Steve Bannon: 'There's No Military Solution' to North Korea","datePublished":"2017-08-17T00:46:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:01:40.449Z","description":"The White House chief strategist appeared to contradict President Trump's \"fire and fury\" comments","url":"https://time.com/4904066/steve-bannon-north-korea-military-solution/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85877355c61d86bc/6988d768196cf46b41041345/gettyimages-635488650.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85877355c61d86bc/6988d768196cf46b41041345/gettyimages-635488650.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"170727—Steve Bannon","caption":"President Trump Meets With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu At The White House","creditText":"Pete Marovich—Bloomberg via 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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4904066/steve-bannon-north-korea-military-solution/","name":"Steve Bannon: 'There's No Military Solution' to North Korea"}}]}] ```