The U.S. Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis, has warned North Korea of the danger that awaits it if it carries out any attack on the United States or its allies.
Mattis who issued the warning to North Korea on Saturday, told the regime of Kim Jong Un its ongoing missile and nuclear development, was no match for the U.S.-South Korea alliance.
“Make no mistake,” Mattis said during a news conference in Seoul, “any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response that is effective and overwhelming.”
During the joint appearance with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo, Mattis acknowledged that the threat of a nuclear missile attack by North Korea was accelerating.
The CIA said North Korea could be just months away from being capable of hitting the U.S. with a nuclear strike, Reuters reported.
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Mattis accused Kim Jong Un of illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear programmes and vowed to defeat any attack.
He said the North engages in “outlaw” behaviour and that the U.S. would never accept a nuclear North.
The defense chief added that regardless of what the North might try, it was overmatched by the firepower and cohesiveness of the decades-old U.S.-South Korean alliance.
“North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbours and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programmes,” Mattis said, adding that U.S.-South Korean military and diplomatic collaboration thus has taken on “a new urgency.”
“I cannot imagine a condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power,” he said.
