Launching pre-emptive action against North Korea would be a "big mistake" that has the potential to spark World War III, a former Pentagon chief has warned.
Robert Gates, a former US defence secretary under both George Bush and Barack Obama's administrations, warned taking such action against the Kim regime would have devastating consequences.
Dr Gates also said Kim Jong-un had been allowed to build up his nuclear weapons and would not give them up, The Australian reported.
Former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has issued a frightening warning over what would happen if his country launched a pre-emptive strike on North Korea. Photo / Getty Images
Speaking to an International Bar Association conference in Sydney by video link, Dr Gates said US President Donald Trump should resort to diplomacy over threats.
Dr Gates' dire warning has been echoed by Mr Trump's Republican rival Senator Bob Corker who said the President was leading the country into a major global conflict.
Mr Corker, who has been engaged in a very public spat with Mr Trump, said the President is acting "like he's doing The Apprentice or something".
In an interview with the New York Times on Sunday, the Tennessee Republican said Mr Trump's approach concerned him and his reckless threats toward other countries could set the nation "on the path to World War III.".
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office of the White House. Photo / AP
"He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation," Mr Corker said.
Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened tough action over North Korea warning in August the US was locked and loaded to take action against it.
During his maiden speech to the United Nations in September the President also threatened to destroy North Korea, which earned an angry response from Pyongyang.
The interview did not expand any further on the WWIII comment, which was made amid a public Twitter feud between the pair.
In a stinging rebuke against a sitting president, Mr Corker, who chairs the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, slammed the president for running his office like a "reality show".
The spat between the former allies could also undermine Mr Trump's legislative agenda, with Mr Corker's vote vital to the fate of the Iran nuclear deal and passing tax reform.
The feud was sparked after Mr Trump tweeted that his rival decided against running for re-election because he lacked the "guts."
Mr Corker is a respected moderate in the party who once supported Mr Trump, however has become one of the president's most outspoken Republican critics.
He recently said that only the presence of the generals in Mr Trump's inner circle had kept the White House from descending into "chaos."
The feud flared up last week after Mr Trump seemed to pull the rug out from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as he attempted to open lines of dialogue with North Korea.
Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Tillerson was "wasting his time trying to negotiate."
Mr Corker said last week Mr Tillerson was not getting the support he needed from above.
"I think Secretary Tillerson, Secretary (of Defense James) Mattis and Chief of Staff (John) Kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos, and I support them very much," he said.
US ARMY'S DEADLY NEW WEAPON
The US Army has gotten a deadly new weapon that has stronger armour, better electronics, and more efficient propulsion and power systems than anything ever seen before.
Officially known as the M-1A2 Systems Enhancement Package Version 3 - or M-1A2SEPV3 for short - the new battle tank is a huge step forward from the military's former fighting vehicle that entered service in 2007.
Vice president at General Dynamics Land Systems Don Kotchman said the tanks offered clear improvements from the predecessors.
"Principal improvements are in lethality, survivability and sustainability," he told Jane's.
The new tank is the first in the ground combat branch's inventory to be compatible with the Army's Advanced Multi-Purpose (AMP) smart cannon round.
Fired from the 120-millimetre-diameter main cannon, the 22-kilogram AMP round instantly reconfigures itself depending on the type of target it is being used for.
The 'smart' ammunition replaces at least four existing rounds and will automatically adjusting its fuse to pierce an enemy tank's armour, break through a wall or sending lethal fragments over the location of hidden soldiers.
Lt. Colonel Kyle McFarland said once the round has been put into the cannon's breach, a command is entered into the tank's computer and the weapon will adapt accordingly.
"Having one round for multiple targets saves critical time for soldiers in combat since they will always have an effective round for whatever target they identify," he told Army.mil .
"This ability to shave seconds off the first effective engagement can mean the difference between life and death."
The advancement comes at a welcome time for the US Army, with Russia's new Armata tank believed to be boasting technologies far superior to that found on the new M-1A2SEPV3.
Currently still in development, the Russian tank boasts a three-person crew and a highly-automated, unmanned turret.
"The technical means of automatic target-tracking and identification greatly exceeds the human capability," an anonymous source told Russian-owned Sputnick News.
Lt. McFarland said the only downside of the new tank was the cost - around $20 million apiece.
"If you were to compare the cost of a single AMP round to one of the single rounds it replaces, the AMP is going to cost more," he said.
HACKERS FIND TRUMP'S WAR PLAN
Top secret war plans are among a host of classified military documents reportedly stolen by North Korean hackers in a 'raid' on a secure defence data centre last year.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports Operational Plan 5015 - the most up-to-date blueprint for a US/South Korean war with Pynongyang, including a 'decapitation strike' against Kim Jong-un - was among the classified material seized by Pyongyang.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and his sister Kim Yo Jong, left, during their visit to a military unit in North Korea. Photo / AP
If true, this represents a serious blow to diplomatic and military efforts to counter the heretic state's increasingly hostile posture.
It also represents the most significant known victory of a special unit of North Korean hackers, variously dubbed Bureau 121 or the 'Lazarus Group", which works with Pyonyang's General Bureau of Reconnaissance spy agency.
PARLIAMENTARIAN'S WARNING
South Korean member of parliament and member of the ruling Democaratic party Lee Cheol-hee reportedly revealed the sensitive data loss to South Korean media today.
Mr Lee said he had been informed by South Korean department of defence officials that up to 235 gigabytes of data was believed copied from a supposedly secure military data centre in the capital of Soul in September last year.
Up to 80 per cent of the documents making up that trove of information remain unidentified. "The Ministry of National Defense has yet to find out about the content of 182 gigabytes of the total (stolen) data," Mr Lee said in a statement.
North Korean soldiers carrying packs marked with the nuclear symbol turn and look towards leader Kim Jong Un during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo / AP
But those known to have been lifted include sensitive contingency plans for the deployment of special forces in Seoul, along with details on the defence of major military bases, power plants and other critical items of infrastructure.
The first inkling of the daring cyber heist came in May, when South Korea's defence ministry admitted Pynongyang-based hackers had broken into their online military network. It also accused North Korea of an attack against a key naval defence contractor.
In November last year it was revealed an agency responsible for building a new radar network had also been attacked.
'DECAPITATION' PLANS
Spartan 300, the South Korean plan to find and kill key North Korean leaders - including dictator Kim Jong-un - in the opening moments of a war was revealed to the world earlier this year.
It was a plan involving Special Forces troops supposedly ready to be put into play with just 24-hours notice.
The existence of such a plan reportedly infuriated Kim Jong-un, spurring him on to a new round of bellicose bluster.
If the North Korean leader now possesses key details of this plan, it could explain why he has dramatically changed his habits in recent months.
Kim Jong-un has reportedly stopped being driven in his favourite cars, and is instead using an unscheduled car pool for his movements. His regular holiday and entertainment spots are also no longer on his itinerary.
It's all part of a bid to make his movements much harder to track by would-be assassins.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, second from right, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Photo / AP
NORTH KOREA'S CYBER ARMY
It's not the first time North Korea has been accused of engaging in ambitious cyber attacks.
In a nation where most of its citizens have no access to the internet whatsoever, Pyongyang's team of government-backed hackers has been wreaking havoc for more than a decade.
It's believed a special unit of more than 6000 hackers has been attempting, among other things, to find ways to exploit the digital currency 'bitcoin' as a means of bypassing financial sanctions.
North Korea was in 2014 blamed for a devastating infiltration of Sony Pictures in 2014. A trove of sensitive documents and emails was released to the public in retaliation for the North Korea parody movie The Interview.
A North Korean defector has claimed a specialised university had been established in the city of Hamhung as early as 2003 to generate a pool of hackers for government "cyber command" use.
South Korea has repeatedly blamed Pyongyang for cyber attacks over the past two decades which have paralysed banking, disrupted communications and denied access to services.
North Korean hackers were blamed for the crippling worldwide infestation of WannaCry ransomware. This piece of malicious code infected more than 200,000 computers in 150 countries, forcing factories to shut, hospitals to close and transport systems to sit idle.
It demanded the payment of a ransom in return for a password to unlock important data that had been maliciously locked away on infected computers.
