Former U. S. President Barack Obama considered a pre-emptive strike on North Korea after it conducted its fifth nuclear test in September 2016, just days af
Former U. S. President Barack Obama considered a pre-emptive strike on North Korea after it conducted its fifth nuclear test in September 2016, just days after lobbing three medium-range ballistic missiles 1,000 kilometers into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, according to a book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward released Tuesday.
The nuclear blast — and claims by Pyongyang that it could mount the new bomb on missiles that put allies Japan and South Korea within striking distance — had deeply troubled Obama, Woodward wrote in “Fear: Trump in the White House.”
“Even with his intense desire to avoid a war, Obama decided the time had come to consider whether the North Korean nuclear threat could be eliminated in a surgical military strike,” according to the book.
“The North Korean threat had not been diminished, and in September 2016 Obama posed a sensitive question to his National Security Council: Was it possible to launch a pre-emptive military strike, supported by cyber attacks, on North Korea to take out their nuclear and missile programs?” it said.
The Pentagon has reportedly devised plans to strike the North Korean leadership and key weapons sites, but fears of retaliatory strikes by Pyongyang on South Korea and possibly even Japan that would leave scores dead and likely trigger a larger conflict have flummoxed defense planners.
