--- title: Trump's North Korea Restraint During SOTU Underscores Threat description: The President's restraint on North Korea during his State of the Union Tuesday underscores the gravity of the North Korean threat. canonical: https://time.com/5126292/donald-trump-north-korea-state-union/ author: Elizabeth Dias article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-31T05:00:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:05:08.007Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Was Calmer About North Korea This Time. That's a Sign He's Taking it Seriously og:description: The President's restraint underscores the gravity of the North Korean threat og:url: https://time.com/5126292/donald-trump-north-korea-state-union/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc46b0c8f1c023ad8/6988fa1286f68e15b76e819a/gettyimages-912435516.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5025 og:image:height: 2827 og:image:alt: donald-trump-state-of-the-union og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Was Calmer About North Korea This Time. That's a Sign He's Taking it Seriously twitter:description: The President's restraint underscores the gravity of the North Korean threat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc46b0c8f1c023ad8/6988fa1286f68e15b76e819a/gettyimages-912435516.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Was Calmer About North Korea This Time. That's a Sign He's Taking it Seriously > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Elizabeth Dias](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-dias/) ## Elizabeth Dias Jan 31, 2018 5:00 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald J. Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives January 30, 2018 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald J. Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives January 30, 2018 in Washington, DC.Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Elizabeth Dias](https://time.com/author/elizabeth-dias/) ## Elizabeth Dias Jan 31, 2018 5:00 AM UTC President Donald Trump’s remarks on North Korea in his [State of the Union](http://time.com/5125174/trump-state-of-the-union-address-transcript/) speech Tuesday night might have seemed uncharacteristically restrained. Trump didn’t call North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man” or threaten to “totally destroy North Korea,” as he did when he [addressed the United Nations](http://time.com/4951186/trump-united-nations-world-vision/) in September. But in some ways his milder language suggested the gravity of a threat. North Korea is just a [“handful of months](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cia-mike-pompeo-north-korea-nuclear-missile-threat-united-states-russia/)” away from being able to launch a nuclear attack on the mainland U.S., according to CIA Director Mike Pompeo. “Trump’s State of the Union sought to build the moral case for a U.S. preventive war to ‘liberate’ North Koreans,” says Christine Ahn, founder of Women Cross DMZ, a group that mobilizes women for Korean peace. The speech, she says, was “highly reminiscent of George W. Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ speech” in 2002 before the U.S. went to war with Iraq. Addressing the looming North Korean threat, Trump went as far as to call the North Korean regime “depraved.” “North Korea’s reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland,” Trump said. “We are waging a campaign of maximum pressure to prevent that from happening.” Trump also said the U.S. must “modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal” to “deter any acts of aggression.” “Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “Unfortunately, we are not there yet.” Trump’s focus on North Korea marked a change from his first address to a Joint Session of Congress last year, when he did not mention North Korea or nuclear weapons. “We want harmony and stability, not war and conflict,” the President said then. “We want peace, wherever peace can be found.” On Tuesday night, Trump sought to build support for his approach by drawing attention to two men who suffered at the hands of the North Korean regime. Trump first spoke of Otto Warmbier, the Ohio college student who died last summer after he was detained for alleged anti-state acts during a visit to North Korea. North Korea released Warmbier in a coma. His parents described his treatment by the North Korean regime as torture. “Tonight, we pledge to honor Otto’s memory with total American resolve,” Trump said. Warmbier’s parents and siblings were in attendance near the First Lady. Trump also told the story of Ji Seong-ho, a North Korean defector who was tortured by state authorities and later escaped. “His tormentors wanted to know if he had met any Christians,” Trump said. “He had.” Ji too was in the balcony. “The moment with the North Korean defector was very powerful,” says Michael Green, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It was also a very different tone from the one set when Trump said as a candidate he would have a hamburger with Kim Jong-un to work things out.” Trump also did not reference the so-called “bloody nose” option of using military force to push North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program. Such a strike, experts believe, would almost certainly endanger hundreds of thousands of people and possibly lead to a nuclear conflict. Trump’s decision not to raise the option during the speech “will reassure nervous allies,” Green says. As Trump did in [his speech in South Korea in November](http://time.com/5006936/donald-trump-china-vietnam-philippines-korea-japan-apec-asean/), Trump connected Kim’s atrocities at home to his aggression abroad, says American Enterprise Institute’s Dan Blumenthal, director of Asian Studies. “The challenge is to up the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign, and keep South Korea on board, even as time is running out before Kim can put a nuclear weapon on an ICBM,” Blumenthal says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5126292/donald-trump-north-korea-state-union/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5126292/donald-trump-north-korea-state-union/"},"headline":"Trump Was Calmer About North Korea This Time. 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