US sees ‘four or five’ ways to resolve North Korean crisis

Bloomberg

The US has gamed out four or five different scenarios for how the crisis with North Korea will be resolved, and “some are uglier than others,” National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said as tensions remain high between the two countries.
While McMaster said the threat from Pyongyang is “much further advanced” than anticipated and the Pentagon said the president has a “deep arsenal” to draw upon if needed, US officials dismissed North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho’s comment that President Donald Trump’s warnings to Pyongyang at the United Nations amounted to a declaration of war.
“We’ve not declared war on North Korea,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said. “And frankly the suggestion of that is absurd. We continue to seek the peaceful denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.” Both governments have said “all options” are on the table in dealing with the tensions. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaking in India, said the US wants to keep engagement with North Korea in the diplomatic realm as long as possible.
But Ri escalated tensions with his remark on Monday in New York that North Korea would be within its rights to shoot down US warplanes flying in international airspace. That startled markets, coming just days after the Pentagon sent planes near North Korea’s border.
“The UN Charter acknowledges member states’ right of self-defense,” Ri said. “As the United States has declared a war, even though its strategic bombers don’t cross our border, we will come to own all rights to respond for self-defense including shooting down its planes at any time.”
B-1B Lancer bombers, based in Guam, and F-15C Eagle fighter escorts from Okinawa, Japan, traveled the farthest north of the demilitarised zone any US fighter or bomber aircraft have flown off North Korea’s coast this century, Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said last week.
North Korea raised security on its eastern coastline after being surprised by the bombers, which weren’t caught by its radar, Yonhap News reported, citing the head of the intelligence committee of South Korea’s parliament. Military analysts say any conflict between the US and North Korea would risk a devastating attack by Pyongyang on the South Korean capital Seoul.
“There’s not a ‘precision strike’ that solves the problem,” McMaster, an Army lieutenant general, said at an event in Washington hosted by the Institute for the Study of War. “There’s not a military blockade that can solve the problem. What we hope to do is avoid war, but we cannot discount that possibility.”
Kim Jong Un has accelerated his ballistic missile and nuclear weapons testing program. In response, the US has led two recent rounds of UN sanctions on the regime, winning support from China, North Korea’s top trading partner, and Russia.
N Korea and South Korea, a key US ally, have remained at war since the 1950s, with Kim’s regime saying an armistice agreement is invalid.

N Korea may struggle to shoot US bombers
Bloomberg

It’s been almost half a century since North Korea shot down a US military aircraft. These days its generals might find it even tougher.
North Korea’s top diplomat called President Donald Trump’s warnings to Pyongyang a declaration of war, and said his country would be within its rights to shoot down US warplanes in international airspace. Two days earlier, the US had sent fighter jets and bombers the farthest north of the demilitarised zone that any had flown off North Korea’s coast this century.
The US decided to publicise the show of force because North Korea’s radars failed to spot the aircraft, Yonhap News reported, citing Lee Cheol-woo, the head of the intelligence committee of South Korea’s parliament.
Kim Jong Un’s military could hit US fighters either with its warplanes or surface-to-air missiles. In 1969, North Korean MiG jet fighters shot down an unarmed US EC-121 reconnaissance plane over the Sea of Japan, about 145 kilometres off its coast, killing
31 people. Either option poses problems, according to Park Dae-kwang, a research fellow who studies North Korea’s air force capabilities at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.