Mattis Gives Congress A Sobering View Of What War With North Korea Would Look Like

North Korea’s ability to rain down devastation on its enemies is rapidly improving, and while the U.S. and its allies have superior capabilities, the cost of any potential military conflict would be high, according to Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

“We would win at great cost,” Mattis told the House Appropriations Committee Thursday, responding to a question from Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan about what a renewed conflict on the Korean Peninsula would look like. “It would be a war that fundamentally we don’t want,” the secretary of defense added.

North Korea has launched over a dozen missiles this year, testing new weapons systems at an accelerated rate. The North already has the means to threaten its neighbors, and the reclusive regime has said that it might soon test an intercontinental ballistic missile, moving it much closer to the ability to fire a nuclear-armed missile at a U.S. city.

Ryan noted that some people suggested the U.S. simply bomb North Korea to address the growing crisis.

While the Trump administration has said that “all options are on the table,” the U.S. strategy primarily involves economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure in coordination with allies and partners, possibly including China.

“If this goes to a military solution, it’s going to be tragic on an unbelievable scale,” Mattis said in a press briefing in mid-May. “So our effort is to work with the U.N., work with China, work with Japan, work with South Korea to try to find a way out of this situation.” A peaceful resolution is the preferred choice given the costs of conflict.

Answering Ryan’s question about what a war with North Korea might look like, Mattis explained, “It will be a war more serious in terms of human suffering than anything we’ve seen since 1953. It will involve the massive shelling of an ally’s capital, which is one of the most densely packed cities on earth.”

Seoul, South Korea has a metro area population of roughly 25 million people. North Korea has thousands of artillery units, along with numerous, reliable short-range missiles to lay waste to the South.

“It would be a serious, a catastrophic war, especially for innocent people in some of our allied countries, to include Japan,” Mattis stressed to Congress. “It’s also one we are doing everything possible not to have happen.”

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].</s>A North Korean man defected to South Korea by crossing the border, the South Korean army said. This is the second defection in less than a week. The defector was found in the Han River in Seoul on Sunday, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff as cited by Yonhap news agency. South Korean authorities were interrogating the man to determine his motive for fleeing to the South.

This is the second desertion in less than a week after a North Korean soldier fled to South Korea through the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily fortified border that divides the two Koreas, on Tuesday, the first such case since September 2016, Efe news reported.

The number of North Korean refugees in South Korea reached 30,000 at the end of last year, according to the South’s Ministry of Unification.

Most deserters, however, escape by crossing North Korea’s northern border with China.

The annual number of defectors steadily increased from 1,384 in 2005 to 2,914 in 2009, but fell between 2011-2015 owing to stricter control by North Korea at the border and tougher punishments for those caught fleeing, according to the ministry’s data.

North and South Korea are technically still at war, as the Korean War (1950-1953) ended with an armistice but no peace treaty has ever been signed.</s>The defector was supported by makeshift floating devices made of plastic foam, the news agency reported.

​South Korean sentries spotted the man in Gimpo, a town just west of Seoul, in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said according to the Yonhap report.

Officials took him into custody to ascertain what motivated his decision to leave the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The event marks the second defection in less than a week. On June 14, a North Korean soldier walked across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean Peninsula, Sputnik reported.

Pyongyang has called for defectors to be sent back to the DPRK, which some analysts say could be used as a bargaining chip in getting the North to sit down and potentially restart positive inter-Korean relations.

“North Korea may be more aggressive on the repatriation issue,” Jang Cheol-un, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, told the Korea Times on June 10. Pyongyang may insist, for instance, that 13 waitresses who defected to South Korea from China last year return home before it returns to the negotiation table.

The Korean War came to an end in a 1953 truce, which created the DMZ; the North and South are still technically at war, as Pyongyang and Seoul do not have a formal peace treaty in effect.</s>Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events Why does South Korea's new president want to talk to North Korea? Norah O'Donnell is going to ask. Norah O'Donnell hoped to interview South Korean President Moon Jae-in during his first-ever visit to the White House this month.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Washington Post.</s>Mattis, who is to visit South Korea on Thursday, reaffirmed to South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-koo the U.S. commitment to defend the country and "provide extended deterrence using the full range of U.S. capabilities," the Pentagon said in a statement.

The South Korean Defence Ministry said in a statement the two sides had agreed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in South Korea as planned to defend against North Korea's nuclear and ballistic capabilities.

China has objected to THAAD, saying it will destabilise the regional security balance, leading to calls from some South Korean opposition leaders to delay or cancel it.

Mattis's visit to the region comes amid reports that the North may be readying to test a new ballistic missile in what could be an early challenge for of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.

The North also appears to have restarted operation of a reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear facility that produces plutonium that can be used for its nuclear weapons programme, according to a U.S. think tank.

North Korea has carried out a series of nuclear and missile tests in defiance of U.N sanctions. It conducted its fifth nuclear test in September. North and South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Mattis also met Jordan's King Abdullah at the Pentagon and expressed his deep appreciation for Jordan's contributions to the fight against Islamic State, the Pentagon statement said.</s>A North Korean soldier has fled to South Korea by swimming across the Han River, the second defection in a week.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the man had swum across a particularly narrow part of the fast-moving river after attaching foam to his shoulders to help him stay afloat.

Last week, a North Korean soldier walked across the heavily-guarded border that separates the countries.

Soldiers had previously been defecting at the rate of about one a year.

The latest defector, thought to be in his early twenties, was spotted at Gimpo, just west of the southern capital Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported.

He screamed "Don't kill me, I am here to defect", at a South Korean marine who had seen him, Yonhap said.

The soldier will now be questioned by military officials.

North and South Korea are technically still at war, since the conflict between them ended in 1953 with a truce, not a formal peace treaty.

Seoul says more than 30,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the end of the Korean War, the majority via China, which has the longest border with the North.</s>SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean man defected to South Korea on Sunday after swimming south with plastic foam pieces on his shoulders to help keep him afloat, the military was quoted as saying.

It was the second such rare defection across the heavily fortified border that divides the peninsula in less than a week. South Korean officials have said the number of North Korean defectors has been on the rise, but most travel via China and other countries first.

South Korean marines found the man, in his early 20s, around 2:30 a.m. Sunday near an observation post on the northern part of the Han River just west of Seoul in Gimpo, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The military said he was discovered at a particularly narrow stretch in the river after swimming south buoyed by the plastic foam pieces, according to Yonhap. He reportedly screamed, “Don’t kill me. I am here to defect,” after he was spotted by a South Korean marine.

The Unification Ministry, which oversees ties between the two countries, has said the number of North Koreans who have fled to the South since the end of the Korean War surpassed 30,000 in November.

Officials believe people are increasingly trying to escape the isolated country as leader Kim Jong Un moves to consolidate his rule after taking over when his father, Kim Jong Il, died of a heart attack in 2011.

Tensions also have been on the rise over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and the U.N. Security Council has accordingly tightened economic sanctions against the communist state.

It’s extremely difficult to cross the border by land or sea because the two Koreas remain technically at war and are separated by the Demilitarized Zone, which is dotted with land mines. Barbed wire and guard posts also protect the shoreline of waters near the border.

Most defectors come to the South after first escaping to China and transiting through other countries. Once they arrive in South Korea, they are automatically granted citizenship after a three-month transition period for re-education and debriefing.

But some do manage to cross over. On Tuesday, a North Korean soldier crossed the Military Demarcation Line in the central sector of the DMZ and said he wanted to defect, military officials said. Two of four North Korean sailors recently rescued in the sea off the peninsula’s east coast also reportedly said they wished to defect.</s>A man who attached plastic foam pieces to his shoulders and swam down the Han River is the second North Korea to defect in the last week, South Korea’s military said.

The North Korea man, in his 20s, was spotted around 2:30 a.m. on June 18 at the northern part of the mouth of the Han River in Gimpo, just west of Seoul, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

On June 13, a North Korean solder defected to South Korea through the border.

Questioning is under way to find out what caused the man who was found in the Han River to flee to the South.

When a South Korean Marine spotted him, the man screamed, “Don’t kill me. I am here to defect,” Yonhap reported.

Earlier this month, two of the four North Korean sailors rescued in the East Sea said they hoped to defect, Yonhap reported.

The two Koreas remain technically at war since the Korean War (1950-53) ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

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Login To Your FaceBook to Make Comments</s>A North Korean man defected to South Korea on Sunday after swimming south with plastic foam pieces on his shoulders to help keep him afloat, the military was quoted as saying. It was the second such rare defection across the heavily fortified border that divides the peninsula in less than a week.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Stars and Stripes.</s>A North Korean soldier defected on Tuesday across the heavily mined Demilitarised Zone border to South Korea, the South's military said, amid high tension over the North's defiant pursuit of nuclear weapons. The South Korean military is questioning the soldier, the South's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Reuters.
A North Korean soldier defects to South Korea after swimming across the Han River, the second North Korean defection in a week.