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U.S., South Korea Capable of Fending Off North Korean Attack, U.S. Military Commander Says
The United States and South Korea could ward off any attack by North Korea, even assuming Pyongyang has one or two nuclear weapons, a top U.S. military official said today (see GSN, June 28). Washington and Seoul “retain our ability to deter North Korean aggression and if required, to decisively defeat the North Korean threat if they were to threaten South Korea,” Gen. Leon LaPorte, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, told Seoul’s PBC Radio. Meanwhile, experts said multilateral talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program are likely to resume soon. “I think it’s possible the talks will resume in July or in August if a little later,” said Park Jun-young, a political science professor at Ewha Womans University. “It’s about time the North return, bargain and negotiate.” By relinquishing its nuclear arsenal, Pyongyang could gain energy assistance and other significant concessions from South Korea, Park said. “The United States will make no more concessions, but it may accept to a certain degree South Korea’s assistance if that can dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons program,” he said (Bo-Mi Lim, Associated Press/Billings Gazette, June 29). Elsewhere, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said he urged U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week to avoid provoking North Korea in what he sees as a lead-up to resumption of six-nation talks, Agence France-Presse reported today. “I made an open request that North Korea should not be provoked ... unnecessarily at a time when a positive atmosphere is proceeding,” Ban said. “I explained to Secretary Rice that the United States and other dialogue partners need to be circumspect in behavior and she expressed understanding,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Forbes.com, June 29). U.S. President George W. Bush should replace his point man on the North Korea nuclear issue, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, with a high-level envoy, four senior Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Bush last week. “The current approach seems almost guaranteed to fail,” according to Senators Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and minority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “We urge you to appoint a special envoy to coordinate Korea policy and represent us in direct dialogue with North Korea at the six-party talks,” the letter says. “We need someone with enough clout in the administration to ensure we speak with one voice,” one Democratic congressional aide told United Press International (United Press International/World Peace Herald, June 29). U.S. officials plan to hold a North Korea war game next month at the National Defense University, Reuters reported yesterday. Participants in the “crisis simulation” exercise “will examine the gravity, complexity and difficulty inherent in responding to a series of escalating crises on the Korean Peninsula,” according to a press statement. The event would be “a forum to assess the range of policy options available to the United States to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems by North Korea and to understand the associated consequences of each option,” the statement says (Reuters, June 28).
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