Mattis warns North Korea of 'overwhelming' response to nuclear use

The united states Defence Secretary James Mattis has said any use of nuclear weapons by North Korea would be hit with an "effective and overwhelming" response.
Mister Mattis spoke in Southwest Korea, in which this individual had been reaffirming ALL OF US support, before flying to Tokyo.
He also reconfirmed plans to deploy an US missile defence system in South Korea later this coming year.
North Korea's repeated missile and nuclear assessments and aggressive statements continue to alarm and angriness the region.
America has a considerable military existence in South Korea and Japan, as part of a post-war defence package. There are just below 28, 500 US soldiers in the country, for which Seoul pays about $900m (? 710m) each year.
President Donald Trump has previously said he desires both South Korea and Japan to pay much more towards maintaining that presence

Mister Mattis used his trip to reassure South Korea that the Trump operations "remains steadfast" in their "iron-clad" defence commitments to the region, said the Pentagon.
Speaking after shares at the defence ministry with his South Korean language counterpart Han Min-koo, Mister Mattis told reporters that "any attack on america, or our allies, will be defeated, and any use of nuclear tools would be met with a response that might be effective and overwhelming".
North Korea conducted its fifth test of a nuclear device last year, and promises it is capable of carrying out an elemental attack on the US, though experts are still unconvinced its technology has progressed that far.
That has also said in recent weeks that it has a new global ballistic missile, capable of reaching the US landmass, which it is ready to test launch at any time.
How advanced is North Korea's nuclear system?
North Korea's missile program
Mr Mattis's assertion that an attack by North Korea would get large retaliation will hardly certainly be a revelation to Kim Jong-un, says the BBC's Sophie Evans in Seoul.
The bigger question is whether to talk to the North Korean leader to try to persuade him to abandon or limit the size of his nuclear arsenal, our reporter adds. On that, the Trump administration has so far been silent.
Oriental fears
Beneath the Obama supervision, the US and Southerly Korea agreed to release an US-made Terminal Large Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system in South Korea.
Its fans say it is focused solely at defending from North Korean threats. Although China and Russia have complained it is inciteful.

Beijing says it should go "far beyond the protection needs of the Korean language peninsula". It believes the system's radar would allow the US to trail its military.

to is also unpopular with a few South Koreans, who dread missile bases could become targets and endanger people who live nearby.
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Mattis sought to reassure China and tiawan, saying there was "no other nation that needs to be concerned about THAAD other than North Korea".
A Chinese overseas ministry spokesman said on Friday that Beijing continued to be firmly in opposition to the application of the missile system.
After his meetings in Seoul Mr Mattis travelled to Japan, where there are a further 60, 000 US soldiers plus their dependants and support staff in Japan. America paid about $5. 5bn for its Japanese facets in 2016, with Asia paying a further $4bn.
Mr Mattis told Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Menneskeabe that the remained dedicated to the military bijou between their countries.
The mutual defence treaty was "as real to all of us today as it was this past year, five years ago and it will be considered a year and 10 years from now", he said.

According to Japanese media, he also confirmed that the united states would defend islands in the East China Sea that are manipulated by Asia but claimed by Beijing.