Bruce Klingner, the former chief of the CIA’s Korea division, has returned from a South Korea visit at which he warned there is widespread worry among top officials, and “very strong concerns” that the US is liable to unilaterally attack North Korea soon.
This concern comes amid both recent reports that the Trump Administration is debating a “bloody nose” attack on North Korea, and also reports that recent US military exercises are gearing up specifically for such a strike.
South Korea has insisted several times in the past year that they believe they have a “veto” over the US launching a first strike on North Korea, though US officials have not confirmed if they consider that to be the case anymore.
Given the casualties in a new Korean War would be overwhelming, South Korea is very opposed to such an idea, and doubly so because recent diplomacy has eased tensions quite a bit, and has them convinced North Korea can be reasoned with. Convincing the US of that, however, may be at another degree of difficulty.
A bloody nose strike on NK would need be followed by an immediate South Korean invitation to the U.S. to please leave the country.
Too late. No time. It must be dealt with proactively, or it will run out of control like a chain reaction. There is precedent — that is how WW1 started, for example.
Modern communication tech and some prescience in the Korean side might avert a war between their peoples.
On the other hand it might suck to be on Guam.
I don’t blame S. Korea for having very strong concerns that the US might attack N. Korea; after all, N. Korea has not only nukes, but the most formidable artillery pieces in the world that are trained right on Seoul and the largest US base located nearby.
In addition, Chinese Pres. Xi Jingping had warned US Pres. Donald Trump that an act of aggression against N. Korea would bring in China on its side. This had happened during the Korean War (1950-53), when US forces crossed the 38th Parallel into N. Korea and massacred 20% of its population. Once the Americans neared the Yalu River, Chinese reservists poured over the Chinese-N.