Some 20,000 South Koreans would die every day in the event of a US-North Korean war, according to alleged calculations made by the Pentagon.
The claim was made by a retired Air Force general who said the figure was estimated based on a conventional war scenario and did not include potential use of nuclear weapons.
Earlier today, South Korea and China urged the United States to help dial down tensions with the North after Pyongyang accused President Donald Trump of declaring war.
Tensions: A war between Trumps’ US and Kim Jong-Un’s North Korea would see 20,000 people die every day in South Korea alone
Yesterday, North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho made the shock claim that Trump had declared war on North Korea, a statement branded ‘absurd’ by the White House.
When playing out hypothetical war scenarios in case armed conflict were to break out, the Pentagon ‘estimated the potential number of dead in South Korea at 20,000 each day’, retired general Rob Givens told the LA Times.
Givens, who spent four years stationed in Korea, added that the figures did not take into account potential use of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang.
‘There is only one way that this war ends. With North Korea’s defeat — but at what cost?,’ Givens said.
This morning, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry pleaded with both the US and Pyongyang to ‘realise that resorting to military force will never be a viable way to resolve the peninsula issue and their own concerns, adding that ‘War on the peninsula will have no winner.’
Pro or against: Former North Korean defectors and protestors hold placards during an anti-North Korea rally outside South Korean government complex in Seoul
North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, centre, speaking through an interpreter, left, talks outside the UN Plaza Hotel in New York on Monday
While repeatedly calling for dialogue to resolve the issue, China has also signed up for increasingly tough UN sanctions against North Korea.
China’s fuel exports to North Korea fell in August, along with iron ore imports from the isolated nation, as trade slowed after the latest UN sanctions, but coal shipments resumed after a five-month hiatus, customs data showed on Tuesday.
In Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it was working behind the scenes to find a political solution and that using sanctions against North Korea was almost exhausted.
U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, speaking during a visit to India, said he appreciated global efforts to increase pressure on North Korea for its dangerous behaviour.
Yesterday in New York, Ri Yong-ho insisted all options are on the table for Pyongyang and that his nation now reserves the right to shoot down US planes even if they are not in Korea’s air space.
The official, talking to reporters in New York, said: ‘The whole world should clearly remember it was the US who first declared war on our country.
‘Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country.’
US President Donald Trump listens to members of the media on the South Lawn after returning to the White House in Washington DC
Ri added: ‘Trump claimed our leadership would not be around much longer. He declared a war on our country.’
The remarks from the rogue state’s Foreign Minister is in reaction to comments made by the President of the US in which he questioned how long the North Korean leadership would be in power.
‘Trump claimed our leadership would not be around much longer,’ Ri said, threatening to shoot down American aircraft from international airspace.
‘The question of who will be around much longer will be answered then,’ he added.
Ri, who made the comments before leaving New York where he had attended last week’s UN General Assembly, made the statement then returned from his car to the press microphones to add: ‘In light of the declaration of war by Trump, all options will be on the operations table of the supreme leadership of the DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea).’
Kim Jong-un’s Foreign Minister has said President Donald Trump has declared war on North Korea. The dictator is pictured here delivering a speech last week addressing the US leader
His words echoed warnings from the Trump administration that all options were on the table in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and its threats to have a weapon capable of reaching the continental United States.
On Monday afternoon, the Pentagon gave reassurance to Trump to say he will be provided with options to deal with Pyongyang if North Korea does not stop with its ‘provocative actions’.
On Saturday, Ri told the UN General Assembly that targeting the US mainland with its rockets was inevitable after ‘Mr Evil President’ Trump called Pyongyang’s leader a ‘rocket man’ on a suicide mission.
Trump tweeted: ‘Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at UN.
‘If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer.’
North Korea has pursued its missile and nuclear programs in defiance of international condemnation and sanctions.
North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb test on September 3 Pyongyang said on Friday it might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.
While China has been angered by North Korea’s repeated nuclear and missile tests, it has also called for the United States and its allies to help lessen tension by dialling back their military drills.