Mattis warns ‘massive’ response to NoKor nuke use
SEOUL (AFP) — United States Defense Secretary Jim 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.
Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, has sparked global alarm in recent months by conducting a sixth nuclear test and testlaunching missiles capable of reaching the US mainland, while Trump and the North Korea’s young ruler Kim Jong-un have traded threats of war and personal insults.
Mattis, who is on a trip to Seoul for annual defense talks, maintained that diplomacy remained a “preferred course of action” but stressed “our diplomats are most effective when backed by credible military force.”
“Make no mistake — any attack on the (US) or our allies will be defeated. Any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response, effective and overwhelming,” Mattis said in a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart Song Young-Moo.
Mattis added that Washington “does not accept a nuclear North Korea.”
“I cannot imagine a condition under which the (US) 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.
Pyongyang’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-Ho said on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last month that his country could test a nuclear bomb over the Pacific.
Mattis said, however, that Pyongyang should “harbor no illusion,” saying the isolated state is militarily “overmatched” by the US and South Korea — a key ally of Washington that hosts 28,500 US troops.