The United States may launch a preemptive strike using conventional weapons if North Korea moves toward a nuclear weapons test, NBC News reported on Thursday, citing unnamed senior U.S. intelligence officials.
Per the report, those officials said that the United States has two destroyers in the area which are capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles, and U.S. heavy bombers are also positioned in Guam. The strike could also include “could include missiles and bombs, cyber and special operations on the ground,” NBC News reported.
North Korea warned in a statement on Thursday quoted in the report that the United States was “driving the situation to the brink of a nuclear war.”
President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that he had “great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea.”
I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea. If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will! U.S.A.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2017
Asked later the same day if he thought dropping a Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb in Afghanistan sent a message to North Korea, Trump replied: “I don’t know.”
“It doesn’t make any difference if it does or not,” he said.
NBC News reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials, that North Korea could carry out a nuclear test as early as this weekend.
