Clapper: ‘Very Reckless’ to Consider a Preemptive Military Strike on North Korea

EXCERPT:

CLAPPER: "Well, point one is, as I have said in Seoul publicly last week when I was there, as I learned, when I met with the North Korean interlockers in November 14, they are not going to give their nuclear weapons and they are going pursue these aggressively because for them this is their ticket to survival. I don’t they're -- I understand the rhetoric, but I don't think realistically a preemptive military action is -- is responsible. If we were to do that, I think the North Koreans would react reflexively, without deliberation and would rain all that artillery and rocketry on the northern part of South Korea, which is where half the South Korean population lives, particularly in the -- in the megalopolis that Seoul is. So that is not a realistic option in my view. Be very reckless because you’re endangering millions and millions of people and there would be untold death and destruction, I believe, if such a war were to ensue."