Risk of War Between North Korea and the US Grows Every Day, Says Security Adviser
The possibility of a war between the United States and the Kim Jong-un-led country, North Korea, continuously grows, more than ever.
HR McMaster, the national security adviser for the White House, said on Saturday that North Korea poses "the greatest immediate threat to the United States." Moreover, he also stressed that risk of a war between the two countries looms, CNN reported.
"I think it's increasing every day, which means that we are in a race, really, we are in a race to be able to solve this problem," said McMaster who was speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California. The adviser's statement came in the wake of North Korea's latest round of missile testing, which took place after more than two months of silence.
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McMaster noted, however, that President Donald Trump is still bent on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. Furthermore, he also said that there are still options of addressing the problem without using armed conflict, though time is of the essence, as the Korean dictator "is getting closer and closer, and there's not much time left."
"We're asking China not to do us or anybody else a favour. We're asking China to act in China's interest, as they should, and we believe increasingly that it's in China's urgent interest to do more," Mcmaster added. He also said that China should sever its ties with North Korea, in terms of the former's oil imports to the latter. "You can't shoot a missile without fuel," he remarked.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that the agency assigned to intercept and protect the U.S. from North Korean missile attacks is searching for new areas in the west coast where they can deploy new anti-missile weaponry. It is also likely that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence anti-ballistic missiles will be part of the U.S.' defenses against a possible North Korean missile attack, the report added.
"It's just a matter of the location, and the MDA making a recommendation as to which site meets their criteria for location, but also the environmental impact," said Congressman Mike Rogers, who is part of the armed services committee and chairs the strategic forces subcommittee of the house.
