{"id":290852,"date":"2017-02-03T06:12:16","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T06:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=290852"},"modified":"2017-02-03T06:12:16","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T06:12:16","slug":"us-warns-north-korea-of-overwhelming-response-to-nuclear-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=290852","title":{"rendered":"US warns North Korea of &#8216;overwhelming&#8217; response to nuclear use"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">The US defence secretary James Mattis has said any use of nuclear weapons by North Korea would be met with an &#8220;effective and overwhelming&#8221; response.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mattis is in South Korea, where he has been assuring Seoul it has America&#8217;s continuing support.<\/p>\n<p>He also reconfirmed plans to deploy a US missile defence system in South Korea later this year.<\/p>\n<p>North Korea&#8217;s repeated missile and nuclear tests and aggressive statements continue to alarm and anger the region.<\/p>\n<p>The US has a considerable military presence in South Korea and Japan, as part of a post-war defence deal. There are just under 28,500 US troops in the country, for which Seoul pays about $900m (\u00a3710m) annually.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump has previously said he wants both South Korea and Japan to pay more towards maintaining that presence.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\">\n<figure style=\"width: 976px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/E74D\/production\/_93931295_a3394e48-98fa-4d1e-a66d-4ac7fdb04c42.jpg\" alt=\"South Korean and US soldiers in military exercises in Pyeongchang (Jan 2017)\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image copyrightAP South Korean and US soldiers regularly train together in the country<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Mr Mattis has been using his visit to reassure South Korea that the Trump administration &#8220;remains steadfast&#8221; in its &#8220;iron-clad&#8221; defence commitments to the region, said the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after talks at the defence ministry with his South Korean counterpart Han Min-koo, Mr Mattis told reporters that &#8220;any attack on the United States, or our allies, will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons would be met with a response that would be effective and overwhelming&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>North Korea conducted its fifth test of a nuclear device last year, and claims it is capable of carrying out a nuclear attack on the US, though experts are still unconvinced its technology has progressed that far.<\/p>\n<p>It has also said in recent weeks that it has a new intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of reaching the US mainland, which it is prepared to test launch at any time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US defence secretary James Mattis has said any use of nuclear weapons by North Korea would be met with an &#8220;effective and overwhelming&#8221; response. Mr Mattis is in South Korea, where he has been assuring Seoul it has America&#8217;s continuing support. He also reconfirmed plans to deploy a US missile defence system in South [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}