Washington, D.C. — April 13, 2017 — Going beyond Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s statement last month that preemptive military action against North Korea was “on the table,” senior intelligence officials are now saying that the administration is prepared to launch a preemptive military strike against North Korea should it become convinced that North Korea is about to test a nuclear bomb. Other reports rely on sources who say that U.S. strikes are possible in response to any North Korean missile or nuclear weapons tests. In response, Jon Rainwater, executive director of Peace Action, released the following statement:

“Yet again, the Trump administration appears to be threatening a preemptive war against North Korea. The mere threat of such an attack has already ratcheted up tensions in the Korean Peninsula. Following through on the threat could lead to all out war and give the invasion of Iraq a run for its money as one of the most catastrophic foreign policy decisions in U.S. history.

“When the inevitable retaliation comes, what form does it take? North Korea could fire artillery into South Korea, it could bombard U.S. military installations, or send troops streaming south across the border. Given that some of North Korea’s nuclear warheads are likely to survive any U.S. strike, the worst case scenario is frankly terrifying. If President Trump were to authorize such a reckless strike, he’d be putting millions of South Koreans and the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there in immediate danger.”

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Founded in 1957, Peace Action (formerly SANE/Freeze), the United States’ largest peace and disarmament organization, with over 100,000 paid members and nearly 100 chapters in 36 states, works to abolish nuclear weapons, promote government spending priorities that support human needs, encourage real security through international cooperation and human rights and support nonmilitary solutions to international conflicts. The public may learn more and take action at http://www.Peace-Action.org.

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