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North Korea: U.S. Plans South Korean Redeployment The United States is planning a major redeployment of its forces in South Korea, despite a plea from South Korean leader Roh Moo Hyun to avoid major military moves until the current nuclear standoff has been resolved, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 7). Visiting Seoul, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said a U.S. troop realignment should not be linked to the nuclear issue. “What we are talking [about], in terms of the future of the alliance we have undertaken with our Korean allies, is how best to enhance, and shape and align our forces and the forces of our allies to most effectively provide for deterrence from attack. It is not something which should wait until the nuclear problem is solved, as though it is going to weaken our posture. On the contrary, it is going to strengthen our overall posture,” Wolfowitz said. Wolfowitz, who traveled to Japan yesterday to meet with officials there, also said North Korea “is teetering on the edge of economic collapse,” and “that, I believe, is a major point of leverage” (Howard French, New York Times, June 3). U.S. officials said that a redeployment would involve a move south, away from the heavily fortified demilitarized zone. “Our present posture sacrifices a good deal of military capability for the symbolism of having some American soldiers up on the DMZ,” a defense official said yesterday. “That means that if North Korea were to attack, we would spend a lot of the first period of time reorganizing and regrouping in order to start hitting back,” the official added (Sonni Efron, Los Angeles Times, June 3). Wolfowitz, who also asked South Korea to boost its defense spending, said new technology enabled a redeployment. “You can achieve an effective military force at much greater distance than you could before, and often with much smaller numbers of forces,” he said. Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, the U.S. missile defense chief, will visit Japan later this month, according to Wolfowitz. While it is unclear what Japan seeks in terms of missile defense, Kadish will visit “to discuss technical aspects,” Wolfowitz added (Hans Greimel, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 3).
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