Kim’s Nukes Are a ‘Recipe for Disaster,’ U.S. Admiral Says

[Boats]

Kim’s Nukes Are a ‘Recipe for Disaster,’ U.S. Admiral Says
By Keith Zhai and Brendan Scott - October 17, 2017, 7:18 AM CDT
RE: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-admiral-says

- China must do more to pressure Kim, U.S. commander says
- Will continue to present military options on North Korea

The top U.S. military commander in the Pacific warned that the situation in North Korea is a "recipe for disaster," weeks before Donald Trump makes his first visit to the region as president.

Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in a speech on Tuesday in Singapore that China must do more to build pressure on North Korea. The U.S. government will continue to be presented with military options, he said.

"Combining nuclear warheads with ballistic missiles in the hands of a volatile leader, Kim Jong Un, is a recipe for disaster," Harris said. “Many people have thought about military options being unimaginable regarding North Korea. Folks, I must imagine the unimagined.”

Harris’s remarks at the International Institute for Strategic Studies event came amid increasing saber-rattling between the Trump administration and North Korea. There have been signs that Kim Jong Un’s regime is preparing more missile tests as the U.S. and its ally, South Korea, conduct joint drills.

Trump’s effort to halt North Korea’s drive to build a nuclear weapon capable of reaching the continental U.S. is expected to be a topic of contention when the U.S. president makes his first swing through the region from Nov. 3 to Nov. 14. His stops include Japan, South Korea and China, which the U.S. has accused of enabling Kim’s government with economic and political support.

The marine exercises, including the supercarrier USS Ronald Reagan, started Monday and will continue through Friday on both sides of the Korean Peninsula. South Korean media reported over the weekend that North Korean “transporter erector launchers” had been observed carrying ballistic missiles near Pyongyang and North Pyongan province.

Tensions often rise around such drills, which North Korea views as rehearsals for invasion. The country’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kim In Ryong, warned on Monday that nuclear war “may break out any moment.”

North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, and has launched more than a dozen rockets this year, including two intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach as far as the U.S. East Coast. The country views the weapons as a way to deter an eventual U.S. attack that could topple the regime, such as in Iraq and Libya.

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North Korea Warns That Nuclear War Could ‘Break Out Any Moment’
By Shinhye Kang - October 16, 2017, 7:45 PM CDT October 17, 2017, 3:28 AM CDT
RE: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...out-any-moment

- South Korea preparing on guard for possible missile launch
- U.S.-South Korea holding joint naval drills this week

North Korea warned that a nuclear war “may break out any moment” as the U.S. and South Korea began one of the largest joint naval drills off both the east and west coasts of the peninsula.

Kim In Ryong, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said on Monday that his nation had become a “full-fledged nuclear power which possesses the delivery means of various ranges” and warned that “the entire U.S. mainland is within our firing range.” He also called North Korea “a responsible nuclear state.”

“As long as one does not take part in the U.S. military actions against the DPRK, we have no intention to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against any other country,” Kim said, referring to his country’s formal name.

The comments are similar to other warnings North Korea has made over the past few months as tensions have increased with President Donald Trump’s administration. Kim Jong Un’s regime has repeatedly said it needs the capability to strike the U.S. with a nuclear weapon in order to deter an American attack.

“They just bluff to the extreme because they think that if enough people worry about what they’re saying, that would deter U.S.-South Korean action,” Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at Rand Corp., said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “The problem is North Korea is used to using very extreme words to deter by bluff and by bluster, and now they’re shocked that the Americans are using a similar approach.”

Read here for more about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions

Trump has said military force is an option to stop Kim and has ruled out talks with Pyongyang. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday the president wants him to push forward on diplomacy with North Korea “until the first bomb drops.”

A war of words has escalated between the two leaders in recent weeks, with Trump labeling Kim “Rocket Man” and telling the UN that the U.S. would “totally destroy” North Korea if it attacks. Kim responded by calling Trump a “dotard” and warning of the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.”

South Korean military officials are preparing for another possible missile launch from North Korea this week to counter the U.S.-South Korea drills, which include an American aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine. China’s Communist Party will also start its most important political meeting in five years on Wednesday.

A North Korean official said an intercontinental ballistic missile test could coincide with Trump’s visit to Asia next month, CNN reported, without identifying the person. The official added that two more steps are needed for Pyongyang to achieve its goal of having reliable ICBMs: an above-ground nuclear detonation and the "testing of a long-range ICBM capable of reaching Guam -- and even further."

‘Coming Disaster’

Russia on Monday urged the U.S. to reduce military drills near North Korea, reiterating a proposal for both sides to step back and calm tensions.

“I don’t remember a situation when the feeling of a coming disaster is so clear,” Tass cited Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora as saying.

Russia’s Interfax newswire reported on Monday that a meeting is possible this week between Joseph Yun, the U.S. representative for North Korea, and Choe Son Hui, head of the North American department at North Korea’s foreign ministry. Both are attending a non-proliferation conference in Moscow this week, it said.

The UN has tightened sanctions on North Korea this year in a bid to cut off cash flows that help support its nuclear program. Kim’s regime also generates billions of dollars a year dealing drugs, selling weapons, counterfeiting currencies and exploiting guest workers, according to the International Network for the Human Rights of North Korean Overseas Labor.

Lazarus, a hacking group linked to North Korea, may have been behind this month’s theft of $60 million from Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank, BAE Systems Plc researchers said on Monday. While the bank said most of the money was recovered, it’s the latest case in which Swift -- the interbank messaging system used for money transfers -- was used to facilitate the theft of funds from a banking institution.