LOC09:43
06:43 GMT
WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (KUNA) -- Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday said there are military options the US can take against North Korea that would not put its neighbour South Korea, at grave risk.
"Yes, there are, but I will not go into details," Mattis said during a briefing.
Asked if such options included "kinetic" actions, which implies lethal force, Mattis said, "yes, I don't want to go into that."
Asked why the US does not shoot down the missiles being launched by North Korea, Mattis said it is because the missiles "are not directly threatening any of us."
"Were they to be a threat, whether it be to US territory, Guam, obviously Japan - Japan's territory - that would elicit a different response from us," he said.
When asked if the increased rhetoric between the US and North Korea could lead to miscalculation and an intentional conflict, Matti said, "I believe there is always the potential for miscalculation by the DPRK leader" - referring to Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Turning to the incident last week when Russian bombs struck US-backed forces east of the Euphrates River in Syria, Mattis was asked if the US was ceding ground to the Russian and Syrian regime.
"No, we've not ceded ground," he said. "Matter of fact, any ground that ISIS has lost, they have not regained one inch of it," he added, referring to the so-called Islamic State.
Asked about his response to the Russian bombing of the US-backed forces, Mattis said, "We asked them to please stop right away and go with the de-confliction measures that have worked up until now."
The Russian action was "a departure" from past practice, Mattis said.
"We are sorting it out," he said. "We have active communications, both State and Defense, with our (Russian) counterparts right over the weekend and going into tomorrow. ... There are both State Department and Defense Department. And when you look at the fact that this was a change, you can imagine this was at the highest levels." (end)
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