Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that any military solution to the North Korea crisis would be “tragic on an unbelievable scale” and Washington was working internationally to find a diplomatic solution. North Korea has defied all calls to rein in its nuclear and missile programs, even from China, its lone major ally, calling them legitimate self-defense. It has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland, and experts say its test on Sunday of a new missile was another important step toward that aim. “We are going to continue...

If the North Korean regime collapses, the Chinese military is expected to intervene to stabilize the situation and restore control, according to a recently published U.S. report. "The likelihood is high that the People's Liberation Army (of China) would be used in the vicinity of the North Korea-China border in the event of instability in North Korea," said the report published on April 30 by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army's most senior military school. "That (China's) People's Liberation Army would develop contingency missions for North Korea makes a lot of sense; it...