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An Apr. 13 NBC news report that the US was weighing a preemptive conventional weapon strike against North Korea if it felt convinced a nuclear test was imminent. (from NBC’s website)

NBC is facing controversy over a false report that the US was weighing a preemptive conventional weapon strike against North Korea if it felt convinced a nuclear test was imminent. Observers in the US and overseas have been outspoken in disputing and criticizing the network‘s report.

On Apr. 13, NBC reported that the US had deployed two destroyers equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles - capable of preemptive strike operations against North Korea - into the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula, with one of the destroyers positioned around 300 miles away from North Korea’s nuclear testing site at Punggye Village. The report resulted in rising fears not only in South Korea but among North Korea experts in the US.

But reporters covering the South Korean Ministry of National Defense for other US news outlets unanimously dismissed the report as false. South Korean foreign affairs sources bluntly called the report “a canard.”

“Multiple sr [senior] defense officials say this report is ‘wildly wrong’ ‘crazy,’” tweeted Fox News national security reporter Jennifer Griffin on Apr. 14.

“Pentagon pushing back on NBC report, call it ‘extremely dangerous,’” Griffin added.

The response suggests concerns that false reports like NBC’s could trigger an overreaction from Pyongyang.

Justin Sink, a White House reporter for Bloomberg, tweeted the same day, “Administration official calling NBC report re possible preemptive strike totally wrong.”

Voice of America reporter Steve Herman wrote that contrary to the NBC reporting, his own sources indicated that there were no plans for a preemptive strike, but that retaliation was “likely” if North Korea carried out missile or nuclear testing. While his account differed slightly from Griffin and Sink’s, it also dismissed the possibility of a preemptive strike.

The Hill, a website specializing in Congressional issues, stressed that Washington has no plans for independent military activity against North Korea, quoting US officials as saying any strike would require permission from Seoul.

A source with the South Korean government also flatly denied the NBC report, saying “the destroyers apparently never even went there.”

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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