The threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons has entered “a new phase”, one that President Trump is prepared to go to war to end, according to a prominent US senator.
Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican, quoted Mr Trump as saying that “there will be a war with North Korea if they continue to try to hit America” with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). “He has told me that. I believe him,” Mr Graham told NBC. “If I were China, I would believe him too and do something about it.”
He added: “If there’s going to be a war to stop [Kim Jong-un], it will be over there. If thousands die, they’re going to die over there. They’re not going to die here. And he [President Trump] has told me that to my face. And that may be provocative, but not really. When you’re president of the United States, where does your allegiance lie? To the people of the United States.”
Soon afterwards, defence officials from the US, South Korea and Japan said at the close of a video conference that recent advances to the long-range missile programme overseen by Kim posed a “grave and urgent” risk. They vowed to exert “maximum pressure” on the Pyongyang regime.
On Friday the Kim regime tested an ICBM that analysts believe could potentially have reached Los Angeles or Chicago. Mr Trump rebuked President Xi of China over the weekend for failing to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
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The US air force successfully test-fired one of its own weapons yesterday, an unarmed Minuteman-3 ICBM, from the Vandenberg base in California. It was the fourth test-launch from the base this year and was carried out to ensure an “effective nuclear deterrent”, an air force spokesman said.
US defence analysts have argued that a military strike against North Korea is unfeasible; not least because Seoul, a city of ten million people, sits within range of Kim’s artillery. American troops in Guam, Japan and South Korea would also be targets.
However, Mr Graham said experts were wrong to think there were no good options. “There is a military option to destroy North Korea’s programme and North Korea itself,” he added.
Two decades ago the military commander of US forces in South Korea estimated that a war with the North would cost a million lives. Since then Pyongyang has acquired nuclear weapons.
South Korea and the US will begin their latest joint military exercises this month, leading inevitably to condemnation from the North, which argues that the drills are rehearsals for invasion. Kim has said the successful test of the Hwasong-14 ICBM missile last week was proof that his weapons could reach “the entire US territory”. It was steered into the sea off Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.
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Western experts have confirmed that Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago now appear to be within range, although the exact distance the weapon could travel would depend on its payload weight. There are doubts that the Kim regime has mastered the technology to adequately shield a nuclear warhead during re-entry into the atmosphere, but US officials admit that North Korea is making progress with each test. In response to Mr Graham’s comments, the White House repeated its line that all options remained on the table.
Rex Tillerson, secretary of state, said that the US hoped to have talks with Kim “at some point”. He repeated America’s long-standing precondition: that North Korea disavow nuclear weapons. “We do not seek a regime change. We do not seek the collapse of the regime. We do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula. We do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th parallel,” he said. “And we’re trying to convey to the North Koreans: we are not your enemy, we are not your threat — but you are presenting an unacceptable threat to us and we have to respond.”
Mr Trump criticised China but his secretary of state took a more nuanced position. Repeating the call that it use its special influence on the isolated state, Mr Tillerson said: “We certainly don’t blame the Chinese for the situation in North Korea.”
However, the White House is said to be preparing to open an investigation into China’s trade practices, with the focus on US intellectual property. That would mark a sharp shift in tone from Mr Trump’s early overtures to Mr Xi.
President Duterte of the Philippines, who hosts the Asean regional forum on Monday yesterday described Kim as a “son of a bitch” who could bring disaster upon the region. “He is playing with dangerous toys, that fool,” Mr Duterte said in a speech. “That chubby face that looks kind, that son of a bitch. If he commits a mistake, the Far East will become an arid land. It must be stopped, this nuclear war.”
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US citizens were urged yesterday to leave North Korea by September 1, when a travel ban comes into effect. Any Americans travelling there after that date will have to obtain special permits, the State Department said.