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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (4394)	2/13/2005 9:37:53 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

U.S. Forces in S. Korea to Take Broader Role beyond Peninsula By Kim Hyung-jin SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Yonhap) -- After more than a half century as a prominent deterrent against North Korea, the U.S. military is moving to expand its role in South Korea beyond the peninsula, a move that could irritate regional power China, analysts say. Since the three-year Korean War ended in an uneasy armistice in 1953, tens of thousand of combat-ready American troops have been stationed in South Korea with the sole mission of deterring a possible second North Korean invasion. The traditional U.S. military role in South Korea is now facing a fundamental change, as Washington is reshaping its global military deployment to better deal with new security threats such as terrorism and rogue states. "The U.S. military's strategic flexibility is primarily aimed at checking regional powers like China," said Lee Chul-ki, a security expert at Dongguk University in Seoul. Washington has publicly stated that it wants to transform its fixed, tripwire units worldwide into mobile, capability-based forces under its Global Posture Review (GPR) plan. "The U.S. forces in South Korea are not tied down to defending Korea only but are mobile forces that can move rapidly according to the U.S. Global Defense Posture Review," Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless said in Washington in December. The U.S. plan requires its forward-deployed troops in South Korea to be relocated to Pyeongtaek-Osan south of Seoul and cut its troop level here by one-third to 25,000 by 2008. The reordering of the U.S. military role has aroused security concern among South Koreans but U.S. officials say that technological improvement and the creation of rapid expeditionary forces will compensate for the reduced boots on the ground. Analysts in Seoul warn of possible negative effects of the U.S. move, arguing that South Korea can be drawn into an unwanted regional conflict in the event the U.S. militarily intervenes in a dispute between China and Taiwan. "A close look at the GPR shows that U.S. troops are being relocated to the Pyeongtaek-Osan area which has a harbor and an airbase, which enables them to shift in and out of the peninsula more rapidly and easily," said the Dongguk University professor, Lee. "Also, their latest deployment of modernized weapons systems in South Korea such as Patriot missile batteries and high tech intelligence systems are all targeting China," Lee said. "In the case of a Cross-strait armed conflict, no doubt the U.S. will shift its troops in South Korea to the area. Then, South Korea might have to support U.S. troops under a bilateral defense treaty, or we will at least provide them with military bases," he added. Roh Hoe-chan, a lawmaker from the splinter opposition Democratic Labor Party, also warned against the U.S. plan. "The government cheated its people and authorized U.S. forces' regional role, though it knew that the U.S. plan was aimed at launching a preemptive military intervention in North Korea and China," Roh said in December. "That is an unpatriotic act that hurts peace on the Korean Peninsula." Roh spoke after releasing a classified Defense Ministry document detailing Washington's plan to use its troops in South Korea as a "stabilizer" in Northeast Asia. Government researchers disagree that China is the main factor of the U.S. troop re-deployment plan in South Korea. "It's nonsense to make such a claim," said Cha Doo-hyun, a researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses who has been involved in defense talks with the U.S. "It's a dangerous idea that can be formulated only when you stick to a small possibility." How to deal with the U.S. plan has been a matter of serious concern for South Korean officials since it was formally discussed at the start of new defense talks, called the Security Policy Initiative, in Seoul earlier this month. Even before the issue was formally taken up, U.S. officials said there will be no change in Washington's security commitment to South Korea. "If the current political situation between South and North Korea does not change, U.S. forces here will support the U.S.-South Korean Mutual Defense Treaty," Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, chief of the U.S. military in South Korea, said in January. "That is our main focus." LaPorte also said the planned U.S. troop drawdown in South Korea will be offset by its US$11 billion plan to arm the U.S. military here with many sophisticated weapons, including new Patriot missiles, high-speed vessels and AH-64D Longbow Apache attack helicopters. The general also cited the creation of Stryker Brigade Combat teams in Fort Lewis, Washington, which are designed for deployment anywhere in the world within 96 hours. The high-tech, versatile units can be deployed to South Korea within 11 hours, he said. The U.S. strategic flexibility is a concept originating from a Pentagon policy in the early 1990s which was aimed at wining two simultaneous theater wars. The guideline was first presented when the defense chiefs of South Korea and the U.S. met in Washington in late 2003. A joint statement issued at the end of the meeting said the two countries "reaffirmed the continuing importance of the strategic flexibility of the U.S. forces" in South Korea and "agreed on the importance of the adapting the alliance to changes in the global security environment" and "concurred that the alliance will serve to bolster peace and stability in Northeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole." The significance of the statement was overshadowed by the more pressing issue of relocation the U.S. Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division near the border with North Korea. Critics now speculate in hindsight that South Korean officials might have kept secret their agreement to the expansion of the U.S. military role here or they were not even aware of the U.S. intentions. hyungjin@yna.co.kr (END) english.yna.co.kr