[Where would the US find those troops<g>]--"Seoul reveals new war scenario -- U.S. would send 690,000 troops"
The Associated Press Saturday, February 5, 2005
SEOUL The United States will dispatch 690,000 troops and 2,000 warplanes if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, according to South Korea's new defense policy paper that was released Friday.
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The defense white paper, which has been updated for the first time in four years, also removes 10-year-old references to Communist North Korea being the South's "main enemy," though it still calls the North a "direct military threat."
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The new white paper comes as South Korea tries to redefine the half-century-old confrontation with Communist North Korea as well as adjust its alliance with the United States.
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The commitment of U.S. troops in the event of war appears aimed at easing concerns that Washington's plan to expand the role of U.S. troops in the South from guarding against the North into rapid regional redeployments could create a security vacuum in the world's last remaining cold war flash point.
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Washington says its new strategy will bolster, rather than weaken, the allies' defense posture against the North.
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North Korea, which accuses the United States and South Korea of preparing to invade over its nuclear weapons programs, has added more artillery pieces and missiles to its Korean People's Army, already the world's fifth-largest, the South Korean white paper says.
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About 300 of the North's 1,000 long-range artillery and multiple-launch rockets were deployed along the border near Seoul.
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Those missiles, capable of raining down shells and rockets on the South Korean capital only 50 kilometers, or 31 miles, from the border, is the most formidable defense concern for South Korea.
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The number of North Korean troops remained unchanged at 11.7 million, but the North has reorganized its military to add eight new divisions, most of them units with missiles capable of hitting South Korea and Japan, the white paper said.
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For the first time in 10 years, the new white paper no longer refers to North Korea as the "main enemy." But it says that North Korea remains a "direct military threat with its conventional armed forces, weapons of mass destruction and forward deployment of its troops" along the demilitarized zone separating the two sides.
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The removal of the "main enemy" term is largely symbolic but reflects South Korea's efforts at fostering reconciliation with North Korea.
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If war broke out, 70 percent of all U.S. Marine, 50 percent of U.S. Air Force and 40 percent of U.S. Navy forces would concentrate on the Korean Peninsula, including several aircraft carriers that could strike North Korea's artillery units along the border, according to the white paper.
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"The reinforcement plan reflects a strong U.S. commitment to defending South Korea," the document says.
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On Thursday, U.S. and South Korean officials held a first round of talks aimed at readjusting the alliance according to a new U.S. strategy of reorganizing its forces worldwide into nimbler and more mobile units to deal better with new security threats like terrorism.
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The two allies have already agreed to pull back U.S. troops further from the border with North Korea and cut back the number of U.S. troops by one-third to 25,000 by 2008.
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Already armed with large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, the North is resisting U.S. pressure to give up its nuclear weapons programs. Three rounds of six-nation talks aimed at ending the programs produced no breakthroughs.
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The United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia are struggling to schedule a new round of talks.
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China envoy to visit North
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A Chinese envoy will visit North Korea this month on a mission to jump-start stalled six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear arms program, Agence France-Presse reported Friday quoting a senior South Korean official.
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The visit will come after the Lunar New Year holiday Feb. 9, said Chung Dong Young, South Korea's minister for unification.
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He declined to identify the Chinese envoy.
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South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the Chinese official visited North Korea in September on a similar mission. At that time, Li Changchun, a senior Chinese Communist Party official, was in Pyongyang.(AFP)
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