We’re in race against time to avert N Korea war, warns US national security chief
TIME is running out to avoid a war with North Korea, the White House national security adviser has warned, after it emerged that the United States is looking at sites for missile interception batteries following the latest ballistic missile tests from Pyongyang.
“We’re in a race to be able to solve this problem,” HR Mcmaster told Fox News. “There are ways to address this problem short of armed conflict, but it is a race because he’s getting closer and closer and there’s not much time left.” He said Kim Jong-un’s nuclear ambitions were the “greatest immediate threat” to the US and the world.
Despite the US warnings, Pyongyang called the US and South Korea self-destructive “warmongers” ahead of their largest-ever joint air exercise, which begins today.
The five-day Vigilant Ace drill will involve 12,000 military personnel and 230 aircraft, including F-22 Raptors and F-35 stealth fighters that will train close to the border with the North. Exercises will focus on enemy infiltration and precision air strikes.
North Korea’s state-controlled Rodong newspaper yesterday called the drill “an open provocation against the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea], which may lead to a nuclear war at any moment”.
Mr Mcmaster’s comments come just days after North Korea test-fired its highest intercontinental ballistic mis- sile yet, capable of flying 8,080 miles and reaching 1,000 miles higher than its first ICBM launch in July.
The US Missile Defence Agency is now reported to be scouting the West Coast for places to deploy new antimissile defences, including the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system being used by South Korea.
Yesterday, Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, urged the Pentagon to start moving US military dependants, such as spouses and children, out of South Korea, saying conflict with North Korea was growing close.
“It’s crazy to send spouses and children to South Korea, given the provocation of North Korea,” he said.