North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-un could unleash secret stockpile of nerve gas…as top US general warns any war would be ‘horrific’
TWISTED Kim Jong-un has been stockpiling deadly nerve agents including sarin and the VX toxin ready to unleash on South Korea, according to a new report.
“Nuclear weapons are not the only threat,” Kelsey Davenport, director of the Arms Control Association told the
“North Korea could respond to a US attack using chemical weapons. That would be devastating.”
The casualties would be unimaginable with some 23 million people live in the region of Seoul - parts of the city area mere 35 miles from the North Korean border.
While Pyongyang officials deny they possess any chemical weapons, the country began developing chemical weapons in 1961 amid rising tensions at that time.
The Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology reports the country has four military bases equipped with chemical weapons and at least 11 facilities where they are produced and stored.
Davenport said it would be difficult, if not impossible, to neutralise North Korea’s chemical weapon stockpile with a preventive strike.
“Compared to the nuclear threat, which involves, a finite number of warheads and delivery systems vulnerable to air defences and antimissile systems, the chemical threat is not as easily negated,” military analyst Reid Kirby wrote in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
Kim's brother is believed to have been assassinated by North Korean state killers using the deadly VX toxin earlier this year.
Meanwhile Donald Trump's military chief admits any war with North Korea would be "horrific" but added allowing Kim to develop nukes capable of hitting the US would be worse.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, revealed the President had directly told them to "develop credible viable military options" and that's exactly what he was doing.
Dunford was responding to questions about Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon saying in a new startling interview that there's currently no military solution to the military threat posed by Kim's rogue state.
"There's no military solution, forget it," Bannon earlier told The American Prospect.
"Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don't know what you're talking about, there's no military solution here, they got us."
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In Beijing, Dunford said it's "absolutely horrific if there would be a military solution to this problem, there's no question about it."
But, he added: "What's unimaginable is allowing KJU (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) to develop ballistic missiles with a nuclear warhead that can threaten the United States and continue to threaten the region." he said.
Dunford has met with his Chinese counterpart Fang Fenghui, chief of the People's Liberation Army's joint staff department.
He also met with Fan Changlong, vice chairman of the ruling Communist Party's Central Military Commission, and Yang Jiechi, China's top diplomat.
He has been in Asia this week, visiting South Korea, Japan and China.
In Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he would consider sending a special envoy to North Korea for talks if the North stops its missile and nuclear tests, in an effort to jump-start peace talks.
He also declared - amid increased fears in South Korea that threats from Trump to unleash "fire and fury" could lead to real fighting - that there would be no second war on the Korean Peninsula.
"The people worked together to rebuild the country from the Korean War, and we cannot lose everything again because of a war," he said
"I can confidently say there will not be a war again on the Korean Peninsula.
"I would consider that North Korea is crossing a red line if it launches an intercontinental ballistic missile again and weaponizes it by putting a nuclear warhead on top of the missile."
Moon has repeatedly urged North Korea not to "cross the red line" but had not previously elaborated what that would constitute.
Dunford also told reporters in Beijing that any potential military action in the Korean Peninsula would only be taken only in consultation with South Korea.
"South Korea is an ally and everything we do in the region is in the context of our alliance," Dunford said.
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