Pentagon: US Military On ‘Stand By’ For Nuclear War With North Korea

Fact checked
Pentagon put US military on standby for nuclear war with North Korea

The U.S. government has ordered the military to be on stand-by for an all-out nuclear war with North Korea within the next few weeks.

An arsenal of Apache gunships, Chinook helicopters and nuclear bombers has been quietly deployed towards N. Korea in anticipation of war.

Business Insider reports: The New York Times reports that 48 Apache gunships and Chinook helicopters last month trained in Fort Bragg in North Carolina to move troops under artillery fire, and that soldiers will train next month to set up mobilization centers designed to quickly send forces overseas.

Surviving artillery fire and mastering the tricky logistics of an overseas deployment would be needed skills if conflict were to break out with North Korea, as Pyongyang maintains a massive range of artillery guns pointing at Seoul, South Korea’s capital with 25 million people.

Besides the exercises, the US has for the second time ever positioned both its nuclear-capable bombers in its territory of Guam, just a short flight from North Korea.

In addition to the usual forward-deployed USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier in Japan, the USS Carl Vinson has also headed to the Pacific, while the smaller carriers USS Wasp and USS Bonhomme Richard also patrol the waters.

While the US military maintains that these exercises are routine and unrelated to North Korea, the increased tensions with Pyongyang bring scrutiny to every move.

At a meeting of foreign ministers from 20 countries this week in Vancouver, British Columbia, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed sanctions implementation for North Korea, while Secretary of Defense James Mattis briefed them on the US’s plan for military strikes.

While the recent inter-Korea talks — which South Korea has said will continue regularly and indefinitely — have dominated usually bleak headlines about North Korea, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, reportedly dismissed them as “diversions”in a meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts over the weekend.

Most experts agree that Pyongyang will soon launch a satellite. And North Korea may hold a military parade in the days before the Olympics.

And though few expect the US to initiate conflict with North Korea while civilians from around the world gather in Pyeongchang to watch one of the world’s most important sporting events, a satellite launch would provide a suitable target for a “bloody nose” strike, which the US is reportedly considering.

Trump’s foreign policy in his first year in office has often upset norms — and a successful strike on a Syrian airfield in April and a handful of unilateral foreign policy decisions going unpunished by supposedly riled actors might embolden Trump’s White House to make a statement soon.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.