Posted March. 30, 2003 22:29,
James Lilley, former U.S. ambassador to Korea, said yesterday that if the U.S. conducts a military operation in North Korea, about 5 million Koreans would be killed in the first one week. He made such remarks in Yomiuri Shinbun. He added though that the likelihood of the U.S. attacking North Korea was nil.
He cited as the grounds for his assumption that if the U.S. were to attack North Korea, a huge number of Koreans would be sacrificed due to the expected stiff opposition from North Korea.
Regarding some U.S. hawks arguing that the U.S. should take hard line measures against North Korea as it did in Iraq, Lilley said that the response to North Korea was one thing and that to Iraq another. He added that another reason the U.S. military attack against North Korea was impossible was that the U.S. needs to obtain consent from the South Korean government for military operations in North Korea, but the South would never agree.