Experts say Trump war with North Korea ‘real possibility’

WAR with North Korea is now a ‘real possibility’ and would lead to the death of hundreds of thousands of people even if no nuclear weapons are used, say military experts.

A report published yesterday by the Royal United Services Institute says Pyongyang is making ‘rapid progress’ in its missile and nuclear programmes and ‘time is not on diplomacy’s side’.

Donald Trump has at most three years to decide whether to launch a pre- emptive strike against Kim Jong Un’s regime before such a move would resort in nuclear retaliation.

Given the ‘stark choice’, report author Professor Malcolm Chalmers says there is a ‘real possibility’ the US President will decide to ‘resolve the North Korea issue sooner rather than later’.

His report, which sets out what war with North Korea

‘Time is not on diplomacy’s side’

would look like, says the scale could be even greater than the Vietnam or Iraq war, it warns.

If would involve a large- scale US-led air and cyber offensive at an early stage followed by ‘massive North Korean retaliation against South Korea and US bases in the region, using conventional, chemical and possibly nuclear weapons’. The North has 10,000 artillery pieces and around 600 short-range missiles.

The report adds: ‘In these circumstances, a full-scale invasion of North Korea would be highly likely.’ Such a conflict would result in hundreds of thousands of casualties.

Downing Street would receive a call from Mr Trump within an hour of the start of an attack asking for support. ‘The UK would have, at most, only a few hours to make clear how it stood,’ says the report.

It urges Theresa May to help persuade the US to reject proposals for preventative strikes.