White House shoots down claim that a member of Trump's National Security Council implied that striking North Korea could help him in the midterm elections

A South Korean news report translated to English quoted a staffer on President Donald Trump's National Security Council who was said to have mentioned that a limited strike against North Korea "might help in the midterm elections."
The news stoked fears that the US might be more serious about preemptively striking North Korea than previously thought.
However, the source of the quote said that the staffer merely said something "to the effect" that a strike might score Trump some political points.

Foreign-policy experts and lawmakers were aghast following a South Korean news report that attributed to a staffer on President Donald Trump's National Security Council the suggestion that a limited strike against North Korea "might help in the midterm elections."

The alleged comment, which was sourced from a scathing opinion column published Friday local time in the South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh, intimated that Trump would consider a limited strike against the North Korean regime "

But a closer look at the original article in Korean suggests that the quote should not have been taken a face value. The Korean version states that the source of the quote claimed that Pottinger said something "to the effect" that a limited strike "might help in the midterm elections."

Hankyoreh told Business Insider that the author of the op-ed had used the quote from a previous story that was published one day earlier. That article, written by the newspaper's Washington correspondent, also cites the source as saying that the comment attributed to Pottinger was implied, and not a direct quote.

Business Insider contacted the correspondent, who said that he had confidence in his source and acknowledged that the English version of the op-ed may have been misinterpreted during translation.

Nevertheless, foreign-policy experts quickly condemned the South Korean op-ed for not naming the source who relayed the alleged comment that's being attributed to Pottinger — and for suggesting that Pottinger would make such a statement:

"" one commenter said.

I hope it#emo#s a misquote or o... @ Jeffrey Lewis

Note: the sourcing here is ... @ Loren DeJonge Schulman

Rep. Ted Lieu of California also expressed concern:

If below quote is accurate,... @ Ted Lieu

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Pottinger on Friday night and criticized Wall Street Journal Seoul bureau chief Jonathan Cheng, who tweeted the original story with attribution to Hankyoreh.

Never happened. Pottinger i... @ Sarah Sanders

White House shoots down claim that a member of Trump's National Security Council implied that striking North Korea could help him in the midterm elections

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