Kim’s nuclear arsenal a recipe for disaster, warns US admiral

Bloomberg

The top US military commander in the Pacific warned the situation in North Korea is a “recipe for disaster,” as the region prepares for Donald Trump’s first visit to the region as president.
Admiral Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, said in a speech in Singapore that China must do more to pressure its neighbor and ally over its weapons programs. The US government will continue to be presented with
military options for dealing with Kim Jong Un, he said, although
he added a diplomatic solution
remains the priority.
“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’s regime is preparing more missile tests as the US 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 US is expected to be a topic of contention when the US president makes his first swing through the region from Nov. 3 to Nov. 14. His stops include Japan, South Korea and China, which the US has accused of enabling Kim’s administration with economic and political support. “If you’re hoping for a diplomatic, economic solution, a peaceful solution to the North Korean crisis, then those roads go through Beijing in my mind,” Harris said during a question and answer session after the speech. “And I think China recognizes this now.”
The US-South Korean marine
exercises, including the supercarrier USS Ronald Reagan, started
on Monday and will continue through Friday on both sides of
the Korean Peninsula. South Korean mediareported over the weekend that North Korean “transporter erector launchers” had been observedcarrying 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 has also carried out missile tests during important dates for China, including international summits hosted by President Xi Jinping, raising questions about the status of ties between the neighbors. Xi on Wednesday kicked off a twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress that will culminate next week with the unveiling of the leadership bench for the next five years.
On Wednesday, North Korea’s Workers’ Party sent a brief note of congratulations to the China Congress. “The Chinese people have made great progress in accomplishing the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics under the correct guidance of the Communist Party of China in the past and we are greatly pleased over this,” the message said, according to North Korean state media.
While Harris put much of the onus on China, he also expressed uncertainty about another North Korean neighbor and key player in the international campaign to pressure Kim: Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has questioned the effectiveness of greater sanctions, even while his country votes for them on United Nations Security Council. “They can be very helpful or they can be the opposite,” Harris said in response to a question, referring to Russia. “It remains to be seen where Russia is completely. But I think that Russia can be a spoiler here, if it wants to.”
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 US East Coast.