SEOUL • The US has agreed not to take any military action against North Korea without first getting South Korea’s approval, President Moon Jae In said yesterday as he marked 100 days in office..
SEOUL • The US has agreed not to take any military action against North Korea without first getting South Korea’s approval, President Moon Jae In said yesterday as he marked 100 days in office.
Backing up the President’s assertion, General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Beijing that there was «no question» that South Korea would be consulted before any possible military action was taken on the Korean peninsula.
«South Korea is an ally and everything we do in the region is in the context of our alliance, » Gen Dunford told reporters travelling with him on a trip that has taken him to Seoul and Beijing. He plans to be in Tokyo today.
The risk to South Korea has restrained successive American administrations striking North Korea to take out its nuclear and missile facilities, even as its capability has improved to the point where it now poses a threat to the US mainland.
But a strike on North Korea would likely cause Pyongyang to unleash conventional artillery at Seoul, just over the border. Ten million people live in the South Korean capital but as many as 25 million people — half the population — live in the greater Seoul region and within North Korean artillery range.
