US amasses nukes in Asia-Pacific to target China, Russia: Mike Billington

US amasses nukes in Asia-Pacific to target China, Russia: Mike Billington

Fri Apr 5, 2013 6:23PM GMT

I don’t think we’re particularly close to a Korean war. There could be a spark there, but as I’ve said many times and as Lyndon La Rouche has said many times, we are extremely close to a global nuclear war between the United States and Russia and China."

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An analyst says China recognizes that the US is using North Korea’s belligerence to build up its military presence as a direct nuclear threat against China.

In the background of this there has been frightening escalation of rhetoric and threats from both North Korea and the US in the Korean peninsula. The US military build up in the area includes a chemical weapons battalion sent to South Korea and B-2 nuclear capable bombers as well as F-22 stealth fighter jets that have participated in drills in the area. North Korea has reacted to this provocation saying a nuclear war with the United States could start at any time. The US is also undertaking military drills with the Philippines and Japan has openly condemned North Korea’s threats without saying anything about the provocative escalation of US actions.

Press TV has interviewed Mike Billington, Executive Intelligence review, Leesburg about this issue. The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Are we closer to a war between the United States and North Korea or are we just closer to a Korean war?

Billington: No I don’t think we’re particularly close to a Korean war. There could be a spark there, but as I’ve said many times and as Lyndon La Rouche has said many times, we are extremely close to a global nuclear war between the United States and Russia and China.

The problem in Korea, is as the Chinese recognize, is that the US has taken advantage of these provocations on both sides - and there certainly are North Korean provocations, but there are also numerous US provocations - They’ve taken advantage of this for a significant military build up in the region, which the Chinese recognize is a ring around China.

It’s of course been going on since the so-called pivot began, but this has brought new ABM systems, ex-band radars and other heavy offensive weaponry into play.

It’s interesting that Morton Halperin, a former defense and security official in several administrations, yesterday said at a forum in Washington that although the US has officially at least pledged to the Russians that there would not be a first strike nuclear attack against Russia’s nuclear capacities - of course because Russia has a huge nuclear capacity - So the mutually assured destruction works.

But thus far, according to Morton Halperin, the US has never made that pledge to the Chinese - that we have not in fact informed them that we would not launch an attack against their relatively small nuclear capacity and therefore the Chinese have very, very good reason to be concerned over this use of North Korea to build up the US military forces there.

Press TV: So then, are we entering an era of a cold war in a sense between China and the US in the region?

Billington: I don’t think it’s that cold. The confrontation with Russia is actually far more serious because the US and the British are insisting that Russia and China back down from their absolute refusal to accept the regime change policy in the Middle East, which has now been going on from Iraq and Libya to Syria and very likely to Iran in the near term.

As far as Korea itself goes, this would be an excellent time to open talks with North Korea. The North is open to talks. What they want is a better relationship with the United States; to do away with the armistice, which ended the Korean war with no peace i.e. no official peace treaty.

But they want a peace treaty, but it has to be on equal terms and therefore they make these kinds of belligerent statements and they’ve developed their nuclear weapons - very small scale and incapable of attacking the United States despite their statements.

Every body knows that they’re incapable of launching such an attack and it would be insane and suicidal.

But they do want talks and they will not talk on the current proposal from the US and the British, which says we’ll only talk if you agree to give up your weapons first.

They see what happened to Libya; they see what happened to Iraq, they’re not going to do it.

But it is an excellent time... And many in South Korea by the way agree, including potentially the new president Park Geun Hye who wants to have a basis of trust between North and South Korea.