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Donald Trump May Start War If North Korea Conducts Nuclear Weapons Test — Seoul And Tokyo At Risk

By Lawrence Arboleda
Published on: 00:43 PST, Apr 14, 2017

Donald Trump could start a nuclear war if North Korea pushes through with its nuclear weapons test on Saturday.

U.S. intelligence officials told NBC that Trump could order the U.S. military to launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korea using conventional weapons if North Korea follows through with the nuclear test.

38 North, a US-based monitoring group, said on Thursday that they confirmed via satellite images from North’s mountainous Punggye-ri site that North Korea is “primed and ready” to conduct the country’s sixth nuclear test since 2006.

“Commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site from April 12 shows continued activity around the North Portal, new activity in the main administrative area, and a few personnel around the site’s Command Center,” 38 North said.

U.S. intelligence officials said that the United States has stationed two destroyers capable of attacking the region with Tomahawk cruise missiles, with one located just 300 miles from the nuclear test site.

U.S. heavy bombers are reportedly located in Guam and are ready to attack the North if necessary. Pentagon also announced earlier this week that the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group was being redirected to the region.

Meanwhile, China issued a plea to Donald Trump not to use pre-emptive military action even if North Korea conducts a nuclear test.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, said that negotiations must be made to avert the crisis.

“Military force cannot resolve the issue,” he said. “Whoever provokes the situation, whoever continues to make trouble in this place, they will have to assume historical responsibility.”

Geng Shuang, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said China has already taken into account all statements that came from Pyong Yasng, and that they are closely monitoring North Korea amid escalating tension with the U.S.

He urged “all parties” to not take any steps that would escalate “a very sensitive and complex situation.”

“Such actions would be very dangerous and very irresponsible,” he added.

North Korea’s vice-foreign minister, Han Song-ruol told Associated Press that Trump’s volatile “tweets” directed at North Korea were “causing trouble,” and increased tensions between the North Korean regime and the U.S.

Han warned that North Korea would not “keep its arms crossed” should Trump launch a pre-emptive strike on the regime.

U.S. president Donald Trump recently tweeted that he’s confident China will “properly deal” with North Korea. If not, he wrote that the U.S.A. and its allies will do the job.

Li Jiacheng of the Global Times, a tabloid sponsored by a Communist party, urged Donald Trump not to launch a Syria-style attack against North Korea because the regime may retaliate by attacking South Korea and Japan with nuclear weapons.

“If the US makes a pre-emptive strike on North Korea, Pyongyang will attack South Korea, Japan and the US forces stationed in the two countries,” Li wrote. “What’s more, the war will not be a blitz but a protracted one, which will require a lot of energy from the countries involved.”

“In the current situation, [the] possibility is still low that the US will initiate a war on the peninsula,” he continued. “However, because of Trump’s unpredictability, it is difficult to predict his policy toward the region.”

Seoul and Tokyo are at risk of being attacked by the North Korean regime should the U.S. launch a pre-emptive strike. On Thursday, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, warned that the North has the capability to attack the country with a missile loaded with sarin nerve gas, the same chemical used on the Tokyo subway by a Japanese doomsday cult in 1995.

Experts in South Korea warned that North Korea might be using radio broadcasts via the state-run Pyongyang radio to increase tensions.

[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]

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