nuclear-news

Statements of reassurance from government officials came as a leading presidential candidate warned that no foreign countries, including the United States, should bring war to the Korean Peninsula.

Anxiety and rumormongering among South Koreans that the Trump administration would answer the North’s messages of nuclear belligerence with a military strike have intensified over the last week.

The anxieties were fed by Mr. Trump’s willingness to use force, as seen in his missile attack on Syria; the redeployment of American warships near the Korean Peninsula; and Mr. Trump’s impatience with China over what he views as its reluctance to pressure North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.Mr. Trump added to the worries on Tuesday with Twitter messages declaring that if the Chinese would not help, “we will solve the problem without them!”……. Although South Koreans generally consider the United States their most important ally in deterring North Korea, they remain deeply wary of any American moves that they fear will raise tensions and even rekindle war. The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War was halted by an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The United States and South Korea would together win any war against North Korea, but many fear catastrophic devastation to South Korea, especially Seoul. The capital city — home to 10 million people and surrounded by satellite cities with another 10 million residents — lies within the range of North Korean artillery, rockets and short-range missiles amassed along the border……https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/11/world/asia/south-korea-north-military-strike.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/asia&action=click&contentCollection=asia&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EBB%204.12.2017&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief&_r=1