As the rhetoric ratchets up between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, fears of a conflict are multiplying.<br /><br />The warning is that any US strike on Pyongyang could provoke a catastrophic response towards its southern neighbour.<br /><br />“Well, with 10,000 tubes of artillery that can hit Seoul without moving, with a million man army close to the demilitarized zone, South Korea is clearly in a very dire military situation,” said the former chief of the CIA’s Korea branch, Bruce Klingner, now a Senior Research Fellow with The Heritage Foundation think tank.<br /><br />“The more targets you bomb on North Korean soil, the higher the potential or likelihood of an all-out war on the peninsula. That could lead to hundreds of thousands of casualties or millions of casualties in both South Korea and Japan.”<br /><br />Possible scenarios for next stage of North Korea crisis https://t.co/7TGJfCZVc0 pic.twitter.com/j1agi8awFv— AFP news agency (@AFP) 11 août 2017<br /><br />With reportedly up to 60 nuclear weapons and a miniature nuclear warhead for missiles, will Kim now step back from the brink?<br /><br />Miscommunication is the biggest threat in the North Korea standoff https://t.co/6NPmiJLtdU pic.twitter.com/VfAfdTG5Ok— NBC News (@NBCNews) 11 août 2017<br />
