US Secretary of Defense James Mattis yesterday warned North Korea of a “massive military response” to any use of nuclear weapons as tensions remain sky-high ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to South Korea.
Mattis, on a trip to Seoul for annual defense talks, said that diplomacy remained a “preferred course of action,” but added: “Our diplomats are most effective when backed by credible military force.”
“Make no mistake — any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated,” Mattis said at a news conference with South Korean Minister of National Defense Song Young-moo.
“Any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response, effective and overwhelming,” Mattis said, adding that Washington “does not accept a nuclear North Korea.”
“I cannot imagine a condition under which the United States will accept North Korea as a nuclear power,” he said.
Mattis did not specify the threshold of nuclear weapon activity that would trigger a military response.
North Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Ri Yong-ho said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month that his nation could test a nuclear bomb over the Pacific.
However, Mattis said that Pyongyang should “harbor no illusion,” saying the isolated state is militarily “overmatched” by the US and South Korea.
Mattis’ trip comes ahead of Trump’s first presidential visit to South Korea next month as part of his Asia tour which also includes Japan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.
All eyes will be on Trump’s message to the North and Kim. Trump is expected to deliver a speech at the South’s parliament and to visit an US military base during a two-day trip to Seoul starting on Nov. 7.
However, Mattis during his trip to Asia this week has been stressing a diplomatic solution, saying that Washington was “not rushing to war” and its goal was “not war.”
Some Trump advisers have said US military options are limited when Pyongyang could launch an artillery barrage on Seoul — only about 50km from the border and home to 10 million people.
North Korea is estimated to have about 10,000 artillery pieces and at least 50 short-range missiles stationed along its heavily fortified border with the South.
Growing nuclear threats by the North prompted calls by some Seoul lawmakers to deploy tactical US nuclear weapons in the South, but Song dismissed such a possibility.
“We believe that tactical nukes are not worth deploying to the Korean Peninsula,” Song said, adding that Seoul was capable of responding to potential nuclear attacks by North Korea without its own atomic weapon.
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