Mattis hints at military options on North Korea but offers no details

[webfact]

Mattis hints at military options on North Korea but offers no details

By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali

 

U.S. Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis gives a news conference after a NATO defence ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Vidal

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hinted on Monday about the existence of military options on North Korea that might spare Seoul from a brutal counterattack but declined to say what kind of options he was talking about or whether they involved the use of lethal force.

 

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday the U.N. Security Council had run out of options on containing North Korea's nuclear program and that the United States might have to turn the matter over to the Pentagon.

 

Any conflict on the Korean peninsula could easily result in a degree of bloodshed unseen since the 1950-53 Korean War, which claimed the lives of more than 50,000 Americans and millions of Koreans and ended in an armed truce, not a peace treaty.

 

Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea, which beyond nuclear and conventional weapons is also believed to have a sizable chemical and biological arsenal.

 

Asked whether there were any military options the United States could take with North Korea that would not put Seoul at grave risk, Mattis said: "Yes there are. But I will not go into details."

 

Pressed on whether that might include so-called "kinetic" options that use lethal force, Mattis said: "I don't want to go into that."

 

Military options available to Trump range from non-lethal actions like a naval blockade aimed at enforcing sanctions to waging cyber attacks and positioning new U.S. weaponry in South Korea, where the United States has 28,500 troops.

 

South Korea has raised the possibility of reintroducing nuclear weapons to the peninsula. Mattis acknowledged discussing that with his South Korean counterpart but declined to say whether that option was under consideration.

 

"We have open dialogue with our allies on any issue that they want to bring up," he said.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump has hinted that any use of lethal force against North Korea would be overwhelming, using phrases like "fire and fury" that evoke images of nuclear war.

 

MILITARY DRILLS

 

The U.S. military said on Monday it had staged bombing drills with South Korea, flying a pair of B-1B bombers and F-35 fighter jets over the Korean peninsula, in a show of force against North Korea.

 

Still, despite heated rhetoric and posturing in the United States and North Korea, there has been no positioning of U.S. military assets to suggest a military conflict is imminent.

 

Trump has vowed that North Korea will never be allowed to threaten the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile, but he has also asked China to do more to rein in its neighbour. China in turn favours an international response to the problem.

 

Mattis told reporters that he believed diplomacy and sanctions were so far succeeding in putting more pressure on Pyongyang.

 

"So, yes, it's working," he said.

 

Even as tensions rise, the United States and its allies have stuck to a hands-off policy when North Korea test-fires its missiles. Mattis confirmed that policy on Monday, saying it would not shoot down a North Korean missile unless it poses a direct threat to the United States or its allies.

 

He said Pyongyang's calculus appeared to be designed to race forward with its missile program, "without going over some kind of a line in their minds that would make them vulnerable."

 

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-19

[Get Real]

Lethal force is going to be neccessary to bring down Mr. Kim

[tonray]

49 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Lethal force is going to be neccessary to bring down Mr. Kim

Maybe we can just send loops of Trump's self aggrandizing speeches over and that alone might beat them into submission....

[craigt3365]

Talk about warmongers! LOL

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/04/19/north-koreas-simple-but-deadly-artillery-holds-seoul-and-u-s-h_a_22046212/

Quote

Burrowed into hard granite mountain faces and protected behind blast doors, 15,000 North Korean cannons and rocket launchers are aimed at the glass skyscrapers, traffic-choked highways and blocks of apartment buildings 35 miles away in Seoul ― and the U.S. military bases beyond.

 

Low tech, but viable and deadly.  These should have been dealt with years ago.

[YetAnother]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Mattis told reporters that he believed diplomacy and sanctions were so far succeeding in putting more pressure on Pyongyang.

 

"So, yes, it's working," he said.

does this guy see black and call it white ?

[tonray]

14 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

does this guy see black and call it white ?

it's working until the next nuke or missile test in 2 or 3 weeks

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Depends on how one defines "working"...

 

Working to prevent imports or ban exports of the various sanctioned things going in and out of NK? Perhaps, though undoubtedly a lot of illegal transactions are still getting thru, probably involving Russia, China and others.

 

Working to dissuade Fat Boy from pursuing and advancing his nuclear weapons program to threaten the U.S., Japan, and who knows who else? No sign of that whatsoever.

[Get Real]

1 hour ago, tonray said:

Maybe we can just send loops of Trump's self aggrandizing speeches over and that alone might beat them into submission....

I can clearly hear there is absolutely no plans on capture him alive on the agenda. 

[tonray]

4 minutes ago, Get Real said:

I can clearly hear there is absolutely no plans on capture him alive on the agenda. 

We already have him. General Kelly has been assigned to monitor the cell in the West Wing so he can't escape.

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

if N. Korea gets attacked they will most certainly unleash a massive barrage from their huge amount of artillery that they have along the DMZ. All of these artillery pieces are within striking range of Seoul and about 25 million civilians.

 

Even if USA was able to take all of the artillery with guided missiles, by the time they achieved this 10's of thousands could die if not millions.

 

That is the problem with trying to take on this nut job. You can decide which nut job hehe.

 

[how241]

No good or easy options here. I wouldn't want to be living in South Korea right now.

[smotherb]

I have a different take on this. What if KJU's rantings are nothing more than marketing his nuclear devices and delivery systems? Would it not be more beneficial for KJU to sell his wares to a third party and let them strike the US and receive the resultant retaliation?

[BuaBS]

10 hours ago, ALLSEEINGEYE said:

if N. Korea gets attacked they will most certainly unleash a massive barrage from their huge amount of artillery that they have along the DMZ. All of these artillery pieces are within striking range of Seoul and about 25 million civilians.

SK has 4 active nuclear power plants , although somewhat further than Seoul , still reachable with conventional means.

[Foozool]

I guess NK knows that Trump loves to press buttons of war. No wonder keep continues missile tests to get in Trump's nerves. NK is about to win this game if US attacks. It will be a long war  just like 1950 China will support NK from back door and Putin will laugh at all. 

 

[IAMHERE]

If we are afraid Seoul will lose some lives via the North Korean artillery , then what  about when the North has Nuclear weapons aimed at Seoul?  The North may or may not get an ICBM to California but they can darn sure get a nuclear tipped scud to Seoul.