Top U.S. officials have said that President Donald Trump is not authorized to strike North Korea in the absence of an imminent threat.
 
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made this remark during a Monday Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing related to how the administration views the Authorization for Use of Military Force or AUMF.
 
According to the U.S. political Web site The Hill, Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked the secretaries whether it was true the president held authority in the presence of an imminent threat against the U.S. while Congress does not have that right. Both officials answered positively.
 
Another lawmaker then asked whether they believed congressional consent should be required for the president to launch a strike on North Korea.
 
Mattis said that under Article Two of the AUMF, the president has a responsibility to protect the country and if there was no time, he said he could imagine him not consulting with Congress. 
 
He took the example of what the U.S. did at Shayrat airfield in Syria when the U.S. first struck and Congress was notified immediately.
 
Mattis said that in the case of North Korea, it would be a direct imminent or actual attack on the United States when he believes Article Two would apply.

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