Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with PACOM commander, Navy Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., in Hawaii on Sunday while en route to Asia to meet with allies about heightening tensions with North Korea.
General Dunford’s trip is intended to “improve military-to-military ties during a complicated time in the region,” and is slated to include stops in South Korea and Japan, as well as with diplomatic opponent, China.
Effective military-to-military relations are important for our allies — we have to have transparency in our planning efforts — and we need to have effective military-to-military relations with China so there is no miscalculation,” Dunford said during an interview with reporters traveling with him. “During this trip I will work to improve our already strong military-to-military relationships in Seoul and Tokyo and to continue to develop the relationship I have had with [Chinese] General Fang Fenghui since our first conversation 16 months ago.”
North Korea’s two most recent long-range ballistic missile tests demonstrated that Kim Jong-un’s regime now possesses the technology to potentially reach targets as far away as America’s East Coast. Soon thereafter, a new U.S. Intelligence report indicated that North Korea does indeed possess the necessary technology to create a compact enough version of a nuclear warhead to mount on such a missile. Since then, the United States has adopted a more aggressive stance regarding Kim Jong-un’s threats of nuclear strikes. This shift in rhetoric has left many concerned that the U.S. is moving further toward war with the reclusive state.
No one is more reluctant to go to war than those of us who represent the men and women who actually have to pay that sacrifice,” Dunford said. “[We’re] also mindful of the civilian sacrifice that could occur in a war.”
“As a military leader I have to make sure that the president does have viable military options in the event that the diplomatic and economic pressurization campaign fails,” Dunford went on. “But even as we develop those options, we are mindful of the consequences of those options, and that gives us a greater sense of urgency to make sure we are doing everything we absolutely can to support Secretary Tillerson’s path.”
It seems likely that, during Dunford’s stop in China, he will continue the American effort to convince the Chinese government to use their sizable economic leverage over North Korea to force Kim to stand down his nuclear arsenal. Despite controlling an estimated 90% of North Korea’s total import and export market, China has continued to emphasize that the onus is not on them to create change on the Korean peninsula.
When I go to Beijing, my primary objective will be to continue to develop our military-to-military relationships, to mitigate the risk of miscalculation in the region and to have cooperation where those opportunities exist,” the general said.
Although the general emphasized on multiple occasions that diplomacy remains the United States’ preferred option as the situation develops with North Korea, he also made it clear that if diplomacy were to fail to bring about an acceptable outcome on the peninsula, the U.S. will be prepared to use kinetic options to force a resolution.
I think it is important as I go over there that the president has already outlined what the policy is, and one of the things he said is there has to be a credible military option in the event the diplomatic and economic campaign to denuclearize the peninsula fails,” the general said.
Image courtesy of the Department of Defense
Join our community. To comment on this article please join/login. Here's a sample of the comments on this post.
Forgive my ignorance, but how long do we allow this spoiled sheltered brat make the Great Blessed U.S.A., nervous in the slightest bit. Screw him! Let one of our young USAF drone's men or women score some bonus points. Just the Ranting of an washed out CCT guy and current COP. Good night.
What we may be seeing is the initial formation of PATO, Pacific Alliance Treaty Organization. You may see countries like Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Australia, India, Vietnam, along with other countries that may form to address the issues that are going to be in the forefront in the years to come. There have been discussions for years and we may see this as a reality for the defense of the participating countries.
I hope General Dunford has successful meetings with the other leaders. I just read an article that said South Korea is on edge right now because Kim has vanished from the public view for the past 2 weeks. The last time he did that was the 2 weeks before the late July ICBM test. He seems to like to disappear for a couple weeks and then make a grandiose public reappearance with much fanfare and something he considers spectacular, like the ICBM launch. South Korea says tomorrow(Tues) is a public holiday when North Korea commemorates the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japan after WWII, and they are worried Kim will appear and mark the holiday with something big like firing off rockets. The other thing making South Korea nervous is a North Korea watchdog site says satellite images last week showed tarps had been placed above the fore and aft decks of the Sinpo-class submarine base. which they think is to hide inside movements. This all does sound a bit ominous, but some analysts say it may not be anything to worry about as Kim has disappeared from view for periods of time before due to an "unknown physical condition." Hopefully Kim has no grandiose plans for tomorrow involving missiles as that could cause huge problems. I wish he would disappear for good! Thanks, Alex
The kennetic option was probably the easiest to plan for. We've had and updated plans for decades. They blew off the dust and corrected some terminology and updated some targeting. Hell, in Korea, my assumption is that the terrain would dictate the strategic ground campaign. There is nothing new under the sun... It's the "peace" that's a tangled web most difficult to solve. How do you do this without mass casualties? In Korea, when the balloon goes up, and the world is afire, you don't. This could become a painful lesson for all involved.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Monday that if North Korea follows through on its threats to fire a missile at the United States, "it's game on." Speaking to reporters, Mattis added that the U.S. military would "take out" any North Korean missile it detects is heading for American soil, including Guam, a U.S. territory.