Pentagon options for military action on N. Korea

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday began a three-nation tour of Asia where anxiety is rising over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, along with questions over how the Trump administration will tackle one of its sternest national security challenges.

South Korea has begun an environmental impact assessment of a local golf course ahead of the deployment of an advanced US missile defense system there, the military said Thursday, speeding up the deployment amid growing threats from North Korea. Press TV correspondent Frank Smith files this report from the South Korean capital Seoul. A Military Armistice Commission briefing room straddles the border.

Tillerson urged China and other countries to fully implement United Nations sanctions on North Korea. These discussions will be closely watched, since North Korea launched four ballistic missiles into the ocean off Japan just last week.

Tillerson said the USA does not want a military conflict, “but obviously if North Korea takes actions that threaten South Korean forces or our own forces that would be met with appropriate response”.

The communist state has accelerated its weapons development, violating multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and appearing undeterred by tough worldwide sanctions. The news followed days of ongoing trilateral military defense training exercises between the U.S., Japan and South Korea to prepare for a potential ballistic missile launch from the north.

North Korea’s recent missile tests have raised concerns over that the country plans..

Those likely to take charge in South Korea aren’t the leaders Tillerson will be meeting with this week. Beijing, however, is likely to continue resisting these measures and to press for concessions by the United States and its allies to get North Korea back to the negotiating table. It triggered unprecedented criticism of China in North Korean media, including remarks about “a neighboring country dancing to the tune of the U.S”. The United States says the system is meant to be used only against North Korea.

“It is nearly impossible to have much of an impact on North Korea in anything other than military terms without going through China because China represents over 95 percent of all of North Korea commerce with the external world”.

The only thing that would be worse-worse for North Korea, worse for the United States, worse for the world, and especially worse for South Korea-is a American leadership that matches North Korea in a stubborn desire to show they’re tougher than the next guy.

The officials are closely watching the regime’s programs and there are growing intelligence indicators of fresh and concerning activity inside North Korea. But he said Tillerson had sought to emphasize that the US prefers a peaceful solution and that the USA was taking issue with North Korea’s government, not its people. They suggest the US could benefit by bringing China closer, though.

“Only then will North Korea not roll out thoughtless policies against the South”.

North Korea pushed through its first ballistic missile test of this year on February 12 with an intermediate range projectile that peaked at an altitude of 550 kilometers (342 miles) and flew 500 kilometers before splashing into the East Sea. But the real centerpiece of Secretary Tillerson’s trip will be Beijing.

“But this is a chance to lay down a marker on what we would need from China and to hear from them what they would want to see in return”. In November, the U.S. Forces Korea expected to finish the deployment between June and August.

The arrests come at a time when Beijing has not stopped placing selective sanctions against South Korean companies for a joint U.S. He said the drills are aimed at using atomic weapons for a pre-emptive strike against North Korea. In short, Secretary Tillerson will face a diplomatic landscape that is littered with landmines on his first big troubleshooting mission overseas.

The 1950-53 Korean War, fought under Truman, is technically still going, since it ended with a truce that has yet to be negotiated into an actual peace treaty.