Mattis: No need to shoot down Kim’s missiles — yet

WASHINGTON — The U.S. has seen no need to shoot down North Korean missiles test-fired in Japan’s direction, but a future missile launch that threatens U.S. or Japanese territory will “elicit a different response from us,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday.

He also said, without elaboration, that the Trump administration has military options against North Korea that would not put Seoul at risk. He would not say whether he was referring to overt combat action, a cyberattack or something more covert. “I will not go into details,” he said. Mattis also confirmed that he and his South Korean counterpart recently had discussed the possibility of putting U.S. nuclear weapons back into South Korea, an option that has been raised publicly by some South Korean politicians. U.S. nuclear weapons were withdrawn from the Korean peninsula in the early 1990s at the close of the Cold War.

“We discussed the option, but that’s all…iwanttosay,”hesaid.inhis remarks Monday, Mattis made clear that the U.S. and Japan are prepared for future missile threats.

The North Koreans “are intentionally doing provocations that seem to press against the envelope for just how far can they push without going over some kind of a line, in their minds, that would make them vulnerable,” he said. “So they aim for the middle of the Pacific Ocean.”

“The bottom line is that the missiles, were they to be a threat” either to the U.S. or Japan, “that would elicit a different response from us.”