US general says military solution to NK ‘horrific’
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A MILITARY solution to the North Korean missile threat would be “horrific,” but allowing Pyongyang to develop the capability to launch a nuclear attack on the United States is “unimaginable,” the top US military officer said yesterday.
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford told reporters that President Donald Trump had “told us to develop credible viable military options and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Dunford was responding to questions about Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon saying in a new interview that the threat posed by North Korea cannot be handled by force.
“There’s no military solution, forget it,” Bannon told The American Prospect. “Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don’t die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there’s no military solution here, they got us.”
In Beijing, Dunford said it’s “absolutely horrific if there would be a military solution to this problem, there’s no question about it.” But, he added, “what’s unimaginable is allowing KJU (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) to develop ballistic missiles with a nuclear warhead that can threaten the United States and continue to threaten the region.”
Earlier, Dunford met Fang Fenghui, chief of the Central Military Commission’s joint staff department, another top general Fan Changlong and top foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi.
Fan told Dunford that China insists military action should be ruled out and “negotiations are the only effective option” in addressing the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
In Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he would consider sending a special envoy to North Korea for talks if it stops its missile and nuclear tests.
He also declared, amid fears in South Korea that threats from Trump to unleash “fire and fury” on Pyongyang could lead to real fighting, that there would be no second war on the Korean Peninsula.
“The people worked together to rebuild the country from the Korean War, and we cannot lose everything again because of a war,” Moon said in a nationally televised news conference.
“I can confidently say there will not be a war again on the Korean Peninsula.”
His comments follow a spike in animosity generated by North Korea’s warning that it might send missiles into waters near the US territory of Guam, and by Trump’s warlike language.
However, both Koreas and the US have signaled a willingness to avert a deepening crisis, with each suggesting a path toward negotiations.
Trump tweeted that Kim had made “wise” decision, referring to reports Kim would not give an immediate order to launch missiles toward Guam.
Dunford said he had advised the US leadership not to dial back on next week’s US-South Korean military exercises.
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