Mattis: War With North Korea Would Be 'Catastrophic'

In a Sunday interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Secretary of Defense James Mattis cautioned that a war with North Korea would be “catastrophic” and “the worst kind of fighting in most people’s lifetimes.”

“The North Korean regime has hundreds of artillery cannons and rocket launchers within range of one of the most densely populated cities on Earth, which is the capital of South Korea,” Mattis told CBS’s John Dickerson.

He later warned, “This regime is a threat to the region, to Japan, to South Korea, and in the event of war, they would bring danger to China and to Russia as well. But the bottom line is it would be a catastrophic war if this turns into a combat if we’re not able to resolve this situation through diplomatic means.”

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