US missile strike on NKorea an unlikely option, for now
WASHINGTON — A pre-emptive military strike may be among the “pretty severe things” President Donald Trump says he is considering for North Korea, but it’s a step so fraught with risk that it ranks as among the unlikeliest options.
Even a so-called surgical strike aimed at the North’s partially hidden nuclear and missile force is unlikely to destroy the arsenal or stop its leader, Kim Jong Un, from swiftly retaliating with long-range artillery that could kill stunning numbers in South Korea within minutes.
An all-out conflict could then ensue. And while Trump’s Pentagon chief, Jim Mattis, says the U.S. would prevail, he believes it would be “a catastrophic war.”
Trump met with the leaders of South Korea and Japan in Germany on Friday, and in a joint statement, they condemned the North’s “unprecedented launch,” calling it a major escalation and a global threat that demands “maximum pressure” on Pyongyang.
Firing back, North Korea said its July 4 missile test-launch was “the final gate to completing the state nuclear force.” A lengthy statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said its intercontinental ballistic missile is meant to overcome U.S. hostility, which it likened to a “mugger’s mentality,” and enable the North to “strike the very heart of the U.S. at any given time.”
In Poland on Thursday, Trump said the time has arrived to confront North Korea.
“I don’t like to talk about what I have planned, but I have some pretty severe things that we’re thinking about,” the president said. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to do them.”
Trump didn’t mention which “severe” options he is weighing following North Korea’s July 4 testlaunch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The administration has been reviewing its overall North Korea policy for months, having declared earlier attempts at “strategic patience” with the North to have failed. The administration has spoken about starving North Korea of cash for its nuclear program and getting other countries to add diplomatic and economic pressure.
But Trump and his aides have not have ruled out the possibility of war with an adversary that is openly defying U.N. Security Council resolutions and threatening the United States.
“It’s a shame that they’re behaving this way,” Trump said, “but they are behaving in a very, very dangerous manner and something will have to be done about it.”