According to Newsmax, President Trump has ordered the US military to shoot down any missiles launched from North Korea that are headed in the direction of the US, Hawaii, or Guam. He may also be considering the same order for missiles headed towards Japan or South Korea.
“This is a clear exercise of self-defense, and there’s no question we should do it,” says former United Nations ambassador John Bolton.
China is also flexing its muscles in preparation for an attack from its erstwhile neighbor. On September 6th, China’s air force conducted an anti-missile exercise near the Bohai Sea – the innermost gulf of the sea separating China from North Korea.
Trump’s shoot down order follows a series of provocations from North Korea. Last month, Kim Jong-un provoked Trump by threatening to fire a missile at Guam, a US territory.
Trump warned the peninsula that ongoing threats would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Trump reportedly will call for a U.N. naval blockade against North Korea, to inspect ships that might carry banned cargo, plus a ban on textile trade and a ban on hiring North Korean workers.
Last weekend, North Korea launched what appears to be a hydrogen bomb. The regime claims it has the ability to attach the bomb to an ICBM capable of reaching the United States. Shortly after the launch, North Korean ambassador to the UN Han Tae Song said the US could expect more “gift packages.”
According to South Korean intel, the North seems to be readying an ICBM for launch over the northern Pacific. On August 29th, they launched an “ultra-modern rocket system” that flew over Japanese territory before splashing into the Pacific.
“There is general consensus in the White House and the Pentagon that North Korea is quite close to the ‘red zone’ and that the US must act soon or lose the upper hand,” said one official.
Bolton claims we are being “driven in the direction of a preemptive strike because North Korea won’t back down.” In response to Pyongyang’s most recent test, Bolton says “we are close to the finish line…it highlights how little time we have here.”
Washington Examiner’s Tom Rogan says Trump has no choice but to shoot down an ICBM if North Korea were to launch one at us. Shooting it down is “the most proportionate and sensible US response,” writes Rogan.
“This isn’t a binary choice. Were Trump to launch a preemptive military strike on North Korea, he would risk a conflict before all diplomatic alternatives have been extinguished. Moreover, even if it failed to hit its target, were North Korea to launch an ICBM against a US territory, Trump would need to respond with military force.”
Editor’s note: The only thing worse than a war with North Korea would be a crazy North Korean dictator with nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, Seoul and South Korea are in the cross hairs, if any war starts, to the tune of many thousands of artillery pieces within range of the Capital. It is a problem that hopefully our military has solved already, but it’s a huge concern.