Trump’s tough talk raises potential for accidental conflict: UBC Prof

U.S. President Donald Trump’s talk at the UN Tuesday of “totally” destroying North Korea may have alarmed many, but one UBC professor says it doesn’t actually signal any change in policy.

Political science prof. Allan Sens said Trump’s speech engaged in a “rhetorical flourish” over an understanding that has always been implicit — that is, that the U.S. has always promised to come to South Korea’s aid if the North attacked it.

“I think what’s different is the hyperbole with respect to destruction and devastation, and this kind of language, I think, is aimed at the North Korean leadership directly,” he said.

“But it’s inflammatory and doesn’t really serve any additional purpose that isn’t already made clear using less tension-driving language.”

WATCH: Trump toasts the UN’s ‘epic’ potential day after slamming world body

1:31 Trump toasts the UN’s ‘epic’ potential day after slamming world body

Sens says a bigger concern is that this kind of language could see a misunderstanding develop between hostile countries, and that could be devastating.

That concern, coincidentally, comes the same week that Stanislav Petrov died.

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He’s the Russian credited with saving the world when he realized in 1983 that what looked like an imminent nuclear attack was actually a computer error, and made the choice not to signal the alarm that would have brought nuclear Armageddon.

“We speak of human beings in these systems that determine whether or not weapons might be launched, that determine whether or not an alert status should be raised. Certainly Petrov is a classic example of that,” Sens said.

WATCH: Donald Trump calls Kim Jong Un ‘rocket man’ during UN speech

1:21 Donald Trump calls Kim Jong Un ‘rocketman’ during UN speech

“He, as he put it himself, was in the right place at the right time and the question is are current leaders right now in the right place at the right time?”

Trump made the comments in a speech to the UN General Assembly, in which he issued a warning to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom he again called “rocket man.”

“No nation on earth has an interest in seeing this band of criminals arm itself with nuclear weapons and missiles,” he said in a speech. If the U.S. is forced to defend itself or its allies, “We will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”

Trump has previously pledged “fire and fury” if North Korea does not abandon its ambitions towards nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

In recent weeks, the hermit nation has threatened the island of Guam, launched test missiles over Japan and tested what may have been a hydrogen bomb.