Peace with N. Korea a ‘possibility’: US

BEIJING: Peace with North Korea is a “possibility,” America’s most senior uniformed officer said Thursday, but warned the US has “credible, viable military options” for dealing with the errant regime.

Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, also told reporters during his visit to Beijing that the US has no plans to “dial back” military exercises with South Korea, which have angered both China and North Korea.

Dunford made the remarks on the last day of a trip to China that included a visit on Wednesday to a northern military zone near China’s border with North Korea.

“What’s unimaginable to me is not a military option,” Dunford told reporters before a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“What is unimaginable is allowing (North Korean leader Kim Jong-un) to develop ballistic missiles with a nuclear warhead that can threaten the United States and continue to threaten the region.”

In Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed Thursday that “there will be no war” on the peninsula.

Dunford, who was in South Korea earlier this week and will land in Japan later Thursday to discuss tensions around North Korea’s growing weapons program, acknowledged that a military solution would be “horrific.”

But he said it would be employed only if diplomatic and economic pressures fail to create the conditions for political dialogue.

“I do believe right now that there’s a long way to go, but we are on a path where there is a possibility — and I hope a probability that we can resolve this peacefully,” Dunford said.

On Tuesday, China, which has been accused by the US of not doing enough to rein in Kim’s authoritarian regime, started implementing a ban on North Korean imports of iron, iron ore and seafood as part of a far-reaching UN Security Council resolution passed earlier this month.

China, the North’s biggest ally, accounts for 90 percent of its trade. “The reports I’ve heard even since I’ve been to Beijing have been positive in terms of Chinese commitment to enforce those sanctions,” Dunford said, though he urged China on Tuesday to increase pressure on Pyongyang.

The general went against White House aide Steve Bannon’s statement in an interview published Wednesday in which he said, “there’s no military solution (to North Korea’s nuclear threats).”