Top U.S. military commander says at Colorado forum a potential North Korean conflict would result in ‘horrific’ loss of life
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff closed out the Aspen Security Forum Saturday night stressing that the U.S. must work on military options to derail North Korea’s missiles program even though conflict would result in a “horrific” loss of life.
Gen. Joseph Dunford said the military fully supports the economic and diplomatic efforts underway by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to bring North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the bargaining table. However, it is Dunford’s job to draw up the military options as a back-up plan.
“Many people have talked about the military options with words such as unimaginable,” Dunford said while addressing a near-capacity crowd in the Greenwald Pavilion. “I would probably shift that slightly and say it would be horrific and it would be a loss of life unlike any we’ve experienced in our lifetime, and I mean anyone who’s been alive since World War II has never seen a loss of life that could occur if there is a conflict on the Korean peninsula.”