Story highlights Donald Trump faces tough decisions on Syria and North Korea

His approach to the countries has been very different

Washington (CNN) In one 24-hour period, President Donald Trump's administration erased a red line in Syria and drew a new hard line in North Korea.

Here's a simpler way to look at what we learned about the new President's foreign policy Tuesday: unenforced red lines in Syria and former President Barack Obama's "weakness" helped cause a chemical weapons attack are bad and no longer operable.

On the other hand, ominously, "the clock has now run out" on North Korea's nuclear program, although the US will not be commenting further on the nation's missile tests.

No doubt different crises call for different responses.

That's certainly true when it comes to chemical weapons attacks in Syria that target children and civilians that cause a direct and immediate threat to lives in a country ravaged by civil war compared to missile tests in North Korea that form a more existential threat in Asia.

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