Armageddon in the Making? US, N Korea Dig In Heels on Pyongyang’s Missiles
SputnikNews.com
29.04.2017
The US is not ruling out the possibility of a major conflict with North Korea, but prefers a diplomatic solution to the crisis, President Donald Trump said in an interview on Thursday. Radio Sputnik discussed the issue with Andrew O’Neil, professor of Political Science at Griffith University in Australia.
President Trump’s words followed a Chinese proposal to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile program and suspend US-South Korean military drills to resolve the Korean crisis.
Speaking about the chances of the US actually using military force against North Korea in the wake of its recent cruise missile strike in Syria,
Professor O’Neill said that Washington might eventually opt for a limited-scale strike against North Korea. This, he warned, could spill out into a bigger conflict though, and in this case Pyongyang could resort to a series of pre-emptive strikes against South Korea.
Russia and Japan have called for a restart of the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear program.
When asked whether this could bring about a peaceful solution to the problem, Andrew O’Neil said that he didn’t think that Pyongyang would ever commit itself on anything pertaining to its nuclear program.
When asked about the political complications of the deployment of US THAAD missiles in South Korea, professor O’Neill said that the missiles stationing in South Korea is meant to assure Seoul that it is protected.
Touching upon China’s attitude towards the THAAD missiles deployment in South Korea and the overall effectiveness of this system, he said that the system is obviously untested in combat.
“I think the THAAD is primarily designed to deal with shorter-range missiles as well as long-range missiles possibly with nuclear warheads too.”
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