white house National Security Adviser HR McMaster has issued his gravest warning yet regarding the growing tensions between North Korea and the United States. At the Reagan National Security Forum in California McMaster said that the US was "in a race" to solve the issue surrounding North Korea's nuclear program and that the likelihood of war was "increasing every day." McMaster added that he believed there "wasn't much time left" to solve the ongoing crisis. NK conducted another missile test last week, firing what it called "its most powerful Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)," the missile, which landed in the sea close to Japan is estimated to have flown 1,000 miles higher than the last ICBM test they conducted.
It has been said that this missile had the potential to have struck anywhere on the US mainland, but Pentagon sources said that the missile most likely broke up on re-entry into the atmosphere.
Could there be a preemptive strike?
McMaster's blunt words were not the only alarming warning to be issued by a member of the US government this week. According to AFP news agency, Senator Lindsey Graham (R) told CBS's "Face the Nation" that if there was another underground nuclear test conducted by the rogue regime, the response from the US would be "serious." A range of measures has been undertaken by the US in an attempt to try and kerb the Kim Jong Un's quest for nuclear weapons, including harsh sanctions.
To this point, all diplomatic efforts and punitive measures do not seem to have deterred the despot regime.
During the program "Face the Nation" Senator Lindsey Graham said that he had had numerous discussions with the Trump administration over the issue and that America's job was to "deny North Korea the ability to strike America with a nuclear-tipped missile, not contain it." He went on to say that preemptive war was becoming more of a reality as North Korea's technology matures.
In recent months there seemed to have been a slight de-escalation of tensions between the US and Kim Jong Un's isolated nation. NK had not conducted a missile test in over 2 months, but last weeks test of it's most powerful ICBM yet has re-ignited tensions.
An unthinkable scenario
A war between NK and the United States would be a truly unthinkable scenario.
It is claimed that Kim Jong-Un has enough conventional artillery to completely decimate the South Korean capital of Seoul. The Seoul capital area houses roughly half of the country's 51 million occupants and is situated some 35 miles from the Demilitarized Zone, which has separated the two nations along the 38th parallel since the end of the Korean War in 1953. It is still hoped that a diplomatic agreement can be reached between the two nations, but as McMaster and Senator Graham have so candidly reminded us, it appears that each day that passes, could draw the world closer to a war that will lead to truly catastrophic results.
