Mattis hints at Korean

Defence Secretary confirms plan that would spare Seoul

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis hinted yesterday about the existence of military options on North Korea that might spare Seoul from a brutal counterattack but declined to say what kind of options he was talking about or whether they involved the use of lethal force.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Monday that the UN Security Council had run out of options on containing North Korea’s nuclear programme and that the United States might have to turn the matter over to the Pentagon.

Any conflict on the Korean peninsula could easily result in a degree of bloodshed unseen since the 1950-53 Korean War, which claimed the lives of more than 50,000 Americans and millions of Koreans and ended in an armed truce, not a peace treaty.

Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea, which beyond nuclear and conventional weapons is also believed to have a sizeable chemical and biological arsenal.

Asked whether there were any military options the US could take with North Korea that would not put Seoul at grave risk, Mattis said: “Yes there are. But I will not go into details.” Pressed on whether that might include so-called “kinetic” options that use lethal force, Mattis said: “I don’t want to go into that.”

Military options available to Trump range from non-lethal actions such as a naval blockade aimed at enforcing sanctions to waging cyber attacks and positioning new US weaponry in South Korea, where the US has 28,500 troops.

South Korea has raised the possibility of reintroducing nuclear weapons to the peninsula. Mattis acknowledged discussing that with his South Korean counterpart but declined to say whether that option was under consideration.

“We have open dialogue with our allies on any issue that they want to bring up,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has hinted that any use of lethal force against North Korea would be overwhelming, using phrases like “fire and fury” that evoke images of nuclear war.

The US military said yesterday it had staged bombing drills with South Korea, flying a pair of B-1B bombers and F-35 fighter jets over the Korean peninsula, in a show of force against North Korea. South Korean and Japanese aircraft were involved in the drills.

The aircraft carried out a simulated attack using live bombs on the Pilsung training range in South Korea, a few dozen kilometres from the