[Guardian] Theresa May urgently needs to establish how the UK will react to a US request for political support for military action against North Korea, a leading figure at a security thinktank has warned.
Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, said the prime minister must commission a study to decide the British response, as when the time comes she will "only have hours, at most, to make clear how she stood on what would be one of the most momentous strategic shocks of the post-cold war era".
May’s spokesman, speaking before she begins her visit to Japan on Wednesday, described North Korea’s unannounced firing of a missile over Japan as "reckless provocation" but has not said if she will support a preventive military strike.
Donald Trump said on Tuesday that all options including military action are on the table, while the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, said "something serious has to happen" following the missile test.
May wants her visit to Japan to focus on a possible post-Brexit trade deal and the shape of a future economic relationship but Japanese officials have been analysing the apparent reduction in British influence in the wider world after leaving the EU.
That's the ticket, a Royal Commission. I'd expect nothing less, nor more. Bunch of indolent, wanking Poms. |