Advertisement

Mike Pence thinks mean-mugging at North Korea might deter nuclear aggression

In lieu of an armed armada, the VP deployed a withering glare.

Vice President Mike Pence looks at the North side from Observation Post Ouellette in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on April 17. CREDIT: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
Vice President Mike Pence looks at the North side from Observation Post Ouellette in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on April 17. CREDIT: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man

The Trump administration may have fibbed about sending an aircraft carrier strike group to the Korean peninsula to deter North Korea, but they did send Vice President Mike Pence’s face.

On Monday, Pence visited the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) bordering North and South Korea. The Washington Post reports that although Pence wasn’t supposed to step outside, he did anyway.

Why? So North Koreans could get a load of him deploying his mean face in their direction.

“I thought it was important that we went outside,” Pence said, according to the Post. “I thought it was important that people on the other side of the DMZ see our resolve in my face.”

CREDIT: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
CREDIT: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man

During a speech he made aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in Japan on Wednesday, Pence following up with tough talk, saying “the United States of America will always seek peace but under President Trump, the shield stands guard and the sword stands ready.”

Advertisement

South Koreans, however, aren’t so sure. After it was revealed President Trump was either lying or misinformed when he told Fox Business he was “sending an armada” to North Korea last week, Hong Joon-pyo, the presidential candidate from former​ South Korean leader Park Geun-hye’s ruling party, said the fiasco undermined the administration’s credibility.

“What [Trump] said was very important for the national security of South Korea,” he said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “If that was a lie, then during Trump’s term, South Korea will not trust whatever Trump says.”​

Trump hasn’t helped matters by seeming to be confused about who’s ruling North Korea during a Fox & Friends interview this week, or by revealing his ignorance of Korean history during a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, the regime of Kim Jong-un seems undeterred by Pence’s face. Following the vice president’s DMZ trip, a North Korean state newspaper warned about a preemptive strike on South Korea and the U.S. mainland. Pence says the United States isn’t interested in negotiating with Kim Jong-un’s regime.