General McPeak ‘worried about Seoul, but more worried about Seattle’

With American cities in its sight, North Korea poses a growing diplomatic issue. Retired four-star general and Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill “Tony” McPeak wants a hard deadline placed on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear program.

General McPeak joined KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross for a wide ranging discussion of his military career and the third installment of his memoirs, “The Aerial View Trilogy.”

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“I think the Korean situation is very, very serious and very dangerous,” McPeak said. “I have advocated helping the North Koreans dismantle their nuclear capability against a certain deadline. They’re making rapid progress, much more rapid than I think anybody anticipated. In my judgment, we cannot allow that crazy of a government to come into possession of nuclear capability to attack major cities in the United States. We cannot.”

Rather than waiting while investigators determine whether North Korea can package a warhead and execute a successful launch, McPeak recommends immediately setting a deadline.

“I think we can stop it (the nuclear program) with a conventional attack, but we need to exhaust every other avenue,” McPeak said. “We need to pursue diplomacy.”

He added that the U.S. can also make concessions, such as ending the Korean War. Everything should be on the table, including removing American troops.

“When Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, and Washington have the potential to be vaporized, then we have to negotiate and we should do so seriously,” McPeak said.

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He added that a conventional attack would be costly to South Korea and especially Seoul, potentially wiping out 65 percent of the country’s wealth and even worse, result in a major loss of life.

“I’m worried about Seoul, but I’m more worried about Seattle,” McPeak said. “Seattle is, I like to think, my responsibility. And I don’t think we should trade Seattle for anything.”

Listen here to Dave’s entire conversation with McPeak on the US-North Korean conflict, the state of the military and further insights from one our nation’s top military commanders.

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