By Kim Hyo-jin
Attention is growing over what kind of options the United States has on North Korea after Washington hinted at taking possible military action in response to the North’s successful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test.
These would include expanding deployment of strategic assets and anti-missile systems; increasing military exercises between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan; and redeploying tactical nuclear weapons to the South, military experts said Thursday.
A preemptive strike or regime-change operations against Pyongyang could be considered but there is little possibility for Washington to go ahead with these as they would mean plunging the Korean Peninsula into war.
The U.S. could conduct a practical bombing exercise targeting the North’s nuclear missile facilities, rather than sticking to its regular maneuvers involving B-1B strategic bombers and nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), home ported at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, can easily sail to the Korean Peninsula, according to military officials. If mobilized, they would be accompanied by a nuclear-powered submarine armed with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The U.S. could also conduct an exercise to detect and shoot down North Korean missiles in the vicinity of the peninsula with those assets.
It may consider a large-scale military drill in the East and West seas or international waters with Aegis-equipped destroyers of South Korea and Japan participating.
U.S. media reported that President Donald Trump’s national security team discussed the possibility in March of redeploying tactical nuclear weapons in a bid to send a “dramatic” warning to North Korea.
In 1991, the U.S. pulled these weapons out of South Korea in the prelude to the two Koreas issuing a “joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
But there have been calls for their redeployment by South Korean politicians as a deterrence to the North’s nuclear program.
Other options being mentioned also include the possible installation of additional Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries or the deployment of strategic assets such as bombers on a rotational basis.