NOKO NUKE RISK UP

Mattis warning in SoKo

The threat of a nuclear attack by North Korea is growing, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday.

“North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear-weapons programs,” Mattis said Saturday in Seoul at an appearance with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo.

The ex-general said he could not imagine a “condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power.”

Echoing earlier statements by President Trump, Mattis added the North is overmatched by the firepower and cohesiveness of the decades-old US-South Korean alliance.

Song said he and Mattis agreed to strengthening Seoul’s defense capabilities, including lifting warhead payload limits on South Korean conventional missiles and supporting the country’s acquisition of “most advanced military assets.”

Conservative South Korean politicians have called for the US to bring back tactical nuclear weapons withdrawn from South Korea in the 1990s. Mattis and Song dismissed that idea.

“When considering national interest, it’s much better not to deploy them,” said Song.

“Make no mistake,” Mattis said. “Any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response that is effective and overwhelming.”

Nevertheless, he said diplomacy remains the preferred way to deal with the North.

The US is increasingly looking to Russia to help defuse the situation with North Korea, as relations between North Korea and China, traditionally the regime’s closest ally, have chilled.

Mattis, on a weeklong trip to Asia, spoke a day after he visited the Demilitarized Zone that has separated North and South Korea since 1953.

While there, Song pointed to North Korea’s vast arsenal of longrange artillery in the distance and suggested it would be “unfeasible” to defend against in a conflict.

“Understood,” Mattis responded, according to Reuters.

As Pyongyang’s nuclear-weapons program has captured international attention, North Korea has also expanded its conventional arsenal, with estimates as high as 8,000 artillery pieces along the DMZ.

Seoul, one of the largest cities in the world, with a population of 25 million, is just 30 miles from the zone, well within artillery range.

Experts suggest that in the event of war, North Korea could use conventional weapons to hammer the city, with some studies predicting an attack could kill as many as 64,000 people on the first day.

Mattis has said there are military options on the table that would not put Seoul at grave risk, but he has not offered details.