Mattis hints at secret 'kinetic' military options for North Korea

Business Insider ^

[JP1201]

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hinted that the United States still had military options left for dealing with North Korea, but did not elaborate when asked for details Monday.

Most experts think a military strike on North Korea would invite a devastating response from Pyongyang. The city of Seoul, South Korea, home to 25 million, is well within artillery range of the North, which would most likely use conventional artillery munitions and chemical weapons.

But according to Mattis, the Pentagon has a few tricks up its sleeve that wouldn't involve the decimation of Seoul.

[DoughtyOne]

Yes, that plays well...

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“I wonder what a secret, ‘kinetic’ option is?”

Fidget Spinners!

The kids can drive the NK parents as nutty as the American parents! ;)

[DoughtyOne]

LOL, oh the huge manatees...

[Reno89519]

I don’t think that is what he said with his answer. He simply suggests we have options.

[bigbob]

Promise the Nork people some generators so they can watch TV after dark and they’d probably run the Fat Boi out of the country for us.

[Gene Eric]

>> a few tricks up its sleeve that wouldn’t involve the decimation of Seoul.

I prefer Trump’s rhetoric than Mattis’ comforting words to the Left.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Been thinking. Any military action will require a lot of PR action. We’ll need Korean commandos to overtake the concentration camps and free everyone. Capture the scrawny guards and use cable ties to handcuff them. As the prisoners are freed allow film crews to give them 30 second sound bites and point their fingers at the guards who are most guilty. Karmas a bitch.

[SteveH]

hahaha yeah...

[DoughtyOne]

You may be on to something there.

As long as you include shows from the South, it might work.

I can only imagine what shows the North produces.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Metro is 25,600,000.

[Daniel Ramsey]

The cyber ferrets are being kitted out and are ready for their drone mother ship.

[DoughtyOne]

Not convinced we’re going to have the South rush in.

China might be okay with us removing Kim, but I doubt they’re going to allow all their efforts to shore up the North, go to waste to let the South Koreans move in.

Cut the head off the leader. Give his troops the chance to remain in barracks, and let a new civilian government form to deal with the atrocities.

Many of the military members probably want Kim gone too.

Snuff the top brass who carried out order from Kim, and make a clean slate of it.

If handled right, North Korea might be able to turn into a moderate nation.

Japan was a devil’s playground for a period of time, and it has turned out to be a decent player on the world stage.

[Manly Warrior]

Kinetic in military terminology is more than simply application of force- it is used to equate military action in terms of speed, violence and agility- the tenets of modern US warfare doctrine. IOW, we won’t be fooling around much.

The march on Baghdad in early 2003 was a kinetic operation- cover as much ground as quickly as possible while destroying as much of the enemy force and command/control as possible while avoiding becoming decisively engaged ( maintaining agility).

I would take Kelly’s remarks as nothing more than alluding to a set of contingency plans for the reduction of the centers of gravity ( things/people/infrastructure that make a system work) in NORK via all means necessary and effective to render the regime military blind, leaderless and exposed to fires from a combined operation as quickly as possible.

Operational Plans (OPLAN) with a date of execution become Operational Orders (OPORDs) and are the basis of all military and naval operations coordinated by a (usually) Joint Forces Headquarters, in this case Pacific Command (PACOM).

Nukes can be included in a kinetic operation.

[egfowler3]

Think about it for a moment, we use “kinetic weapons” all the time; we just don't call them that. We call them “training rounds” and we've become pretty good at using them, too. imagine one of those training rounds dropped from, say, 10,000 feet up from the bombay of a B-52 onto a Nork motor pool full of tanks, missile launchers, etc. Although they won't explode, they will smash really nicely. The damage they will do to his launching silos by punching through and smashing everything in the round’s path will be a tragedy for him, and what do you think his troups will do when they see the damage an inert round did? Sobering thoughts. Especially if we drop leaflets afterwards saying we were "just practicing, and the next time is for real."

[Sooth2222]

Kinetic bombardment

[achilles2000]

Yes.

[BenLurkin]

Bat Bombs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb

[Finalapproach29er]

China is responsible for NK. China needs to pay dearly if we needs to go to war with NK.

[PghBaldy]

If this constant tough talk actually scared Kim, he would not be firing missiles (sometimes even over our allies’s territory) and exploding bombs on a regular basis.

[shotgun]

Nope. Jimmah Cahtah cancelled that program just so we couldn’t use it for any situations exactly like we’re facing today.