US fired missiles in 2017 to show it could target North Korea's Kim Jong Un, says Woodward's new book Rage

Bob Woodward had conducted 18 interviews with President Donald Trump between December 2019 and July 2020.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The United States came close to nuclear war with North Korea in 2017, launching a precision missile to demonstrate to Pyongyang that it could strike any target, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a new book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward.

In response to Pyongyang test-firing its first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the US on July 4, 2017, retired general Vincent Brooks, who headed US Forces Korea from 2016 to 2018, ordered troops to fire a tactical missile that travelled 300km before dropping into the East Sea, also known as Sea of Japan, according to Mr Woodward's Rage, a revelatory book about the presidency of Mr Donald Trump set for release on Tuesday (Sept 15).

"That was the exact distance between the launching point of the US missile and the North Korean missile test site, as well as a tent where satellite photos showed Kim Jong Un was watching the missile launch," Mr Woodward wrote, according to excerpts obtained by Yonhap News Agency.


"The meaning was meant to be clear: Kim Jong Un needed to worry about his personal safety," Mr Woodward said, adding that it was never confirmed whether the North had got the message.

Following its ICBM test, the North upped provocations, launching a more powerful ICBM on July 28 and another ballistic missile over Japan on Aug 29, which Mr Woodward described as a "clear escalation" that "changed the character of the threat".

Then defence secretary James Mattis mulled over whether the US should carry out a military attack in response, but reconsidered due to the consequences that would likely entail.



"(Mattis) began looking for more aggressive response options and wondered if they should take some actual bombing action in a North Korean port to send the message," Mr Woodward said. "(Mattis) did not think that President Trump would launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korea, although plans for such a war were on the shelf."

With the escalation of provocations in 2017, Mr Trump's national security team also believed the potential for nuclear war with the North was there.

"We never knew whether it was real or whether it was a bluff," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was quoted as saying in the book.

Mr Mattis even slept in his clothes so he would be ready in case of a provocation by the North and went to the nearby Washington National Cathedral to pray, Mr Woodward reported.

Mr Woodward said the US Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska, had carefully reviewed Operation Plan 5027 - the war plans in case of a North Korean invasion - which included "the use of 80 nuclear weapons".

"This weighed heavily on me every day. I had to consider every day this could happen. This was not a theoretical concern," Mr Mattis was quoted as saying, raising concern that "the worst possible situation might dictate the use of nuclear weapons".

For the book, Mr Woodward - a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is best known for uncovering the Watergate scandal - conducted 18 interviews with Mr Trump between December and July.

During one of the interviews, Mr Trump told Mr Woodward that Washington came closer to war with Pyongyang than anyone can imagine in 2017.

"Much closer than anyone would know. Much closer," Mr Trump said, insisting that Mr Kim, too, must have known.

"But he knows. I have a great relationship, let me just put it that way," Mr Trump said.

US fired missile into East Sea right after N. Korea’s ICBM launch in 2017, says renowned US journalist

Posted on : Sep.15,2020 17:57 KST Modified on : Sep.15,2020 17:57 KST

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Bob Woodward’s new book “Rage” delves into the details of US-N. Korea escalations in 2017

US President Donald Trump speaks during a Latinos for Trump roundtable event in Las Vegas on Sept. 13. (Yonhap News)

After North Korea’s first test launch of its Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in 2017, the US fired a missile into the East Sea that traveled the exact distance between the launch site and the location of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, according to journalist Bob Woodward.

The claim appears in Chapter 11 of Woodward’s new book “Rage,” which was made available to reporters on Sept. 13, prior to its official release on Sept. 15. Woodward was one of the reporters who broke the Watergate scandal, leading to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon.

Woodward wrote that after North Korea launched the Hwasong-14, a missile capable of striking the West Coast of the US, on July 3, 2017, Vincent Brooks, then commander of US Forces Korea (USFK) and South Korea-US Combined Forces Command, ordered the launch of a tactical missile both as a warning and as a show of force. Brooks’ order was reportedly approved by then US Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

US calculated exact distance to Kim Jong-un to send a clear message about his personal safety

Launched from the eastern shore of the Korean Peninsula, the missile traveled for 186 miles (about 299 kilometers) parallel with the armistice line into the East Sea. That was the distance between the launchpad and North Korea’s Hwasong-14 testing site. More specifically, it was calculated to be the precise distance to the tent where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had observed the ICBM launch, according to satellite imagery, Woodward wrote.

“The meaning was meant to be clear: Kim Jong-un needed to worry about his personal safety," Woodward said in his book. At the time, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff had announced that South Korean and US missile units had conducted a joint ballistic missile launch on the East Sea coast in response to North Korea’s missile launch. USFK’s tactical surface-to-surface missile system ATACMS was used at the time. A single ATACMS missile carries 300 or so submunitions and is capable of leveling an area equivalent to four soccer fields.

At the same time, Woodward noted that no intelligence had been gathered to indicate that North Koreans were aware that US missiles could easily target North Korea’s missile test sites or Kim Jong-un. Western news reports on the show of military force by South Korea and the US were also few and far between, he observed.

The book additionally mentions the escalating threat of war between North Korea and the US after North Korea continued test-launching its Hwasong-14 even after July 28. According to Woodward, the Strategic Air Command near Omaha, Nebraska, closely scrutinized and studied OPLAN 5027, an operational plan to prepare for a North Korean regime change. Woodward described the plan as “the US response to an attack that could include the use of 80 nuclear weapons.” Indeed, experts have speculated that North Korea may possess as many as 80 nuclear weapons. In his book’s reference to OPLAN 5027, Woodward appears to have applied speculation from some quarters about North Korea possessing up to 80 nuclear weapons to its characterization of North Korea’s strike capabilities. He also writes that a “plan for a leadership strike, OPLAN 5015, had also been updated.” OPLAN 5015 was a revised follow-up plan to OPLAN 5027, which focuses on a full-scale war with North Korea.

Woodward further writes that during the second half of 2017, Defense Secretary James Mattis slept in workout clothes so that he would be able to attend an emergency meeting at any time and went secretly to visit Washington National Cathedral and pray that a nuclear war between North Korea and the US would not come to pass.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent