A top U.S. general has warned that any war with North Korea would be tough and likely wouldn’t go as planned.
General Robert B. Neller, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, made the remarks at an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday. Responding to a question about North Korea, he suggested that many people have the wrong idea about what war with Kim Jong Un’s regime would look like.
“I think this idea that we’re going to have a bunch of things flying around and somebody’s going to push a button, I believe it will be a different sort of fight,” he said.
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“I believe that however it turns out, it will be a very, very kinetic, physical, violent fight over some really, really tough ground and everybody’s going to have to be mentally prepared.”
The various branches of the army have developed plans over years for a potential war, he said, but conflicts are unpredictable.
“If it were to go down, I’m not so sure it’s going to go down the way we planned it,” he said. “It never does.”
Neller also outlined his impression of North Korea’s military capabilities, saying he envisions a conflict as a “land campaign.”
“You’ve got the prospect of special and nuclear weapons in the hands of the North Koreans. Whether they would use them, how they would use them. You’ve got the problem of the Kaesong Heights and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of artillery. Very unsophisticated but just mass artillery in underground facilities. Even if they weren’t protected by underground facilities, just the number of them would be a problem.”
“And then you’ve got a pretty substantial military force that I believe would be committed to fighting to protect their country.”
It’s his job to train the Marines to prepare for anything, including a possible war with North Korea, he said. But he’s not saying it’s going to happen. “I hope it doesn’t happen. I don’t want it to happen.”
“It would not be good for anybody.”
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