A top general in South Korea said “self-restraint” is the only thing keeping the U.S. and South Korea out of war with North Korea.
Vincent Brooks, the commander of American troops based in Seoul, made his comment the same day that the U.S. and South Korea conducted a joint missile exercise, prompted by North Korea’s test-launch of its first intercontinental ballistic missile.
“Self-restraint, which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war,” Brooks said in remarks reported by the New York Times. He was referring to the Korean Armistice Agreement that suspended the Korean War in 1953. “As this alliance missile live-fire shows, we are able to change our choice when so ordered by our alliance national leaders. It would be a grave mistake for anyone to believe anything to the contrary.”
President Trump criticized North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the wake of the test and urged China to “put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!”
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Eyewitness Accounts From the Trump Rally Shooting
- From 2022: How the Threat of Political Violence Is Transforming America
- ‘We’re Living in a Nightmare:’ Inside the Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town
- Remembering Shannen Doherty , the Quintessential Gen X Girl
- How Often Do You Really Need to Wash Your Sheets?
- Why Mail Theft Is on the Rise
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Get Our Paris Olympics Newsletter in Your Inbox
Write to Tessa Berenson Rogers at tessa.Rogers@time.com