Text Fwd: Extra U.S. troops not likely to arrive in time in case of N.K. crisis: Gates

Yonhap News
2010/02/04 09:01 KST
Extra U.S. troops not likely to arrive in time in case of N.K. crisis: Gates
By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 (Yonhap) -- Additional U.S. ground forces may not be able to arrive in South Korea in time in case of an emergency situation in North Korea due to America's heavy commitment in Iraq and Afghanistan, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.

"We could not get the Army units required for South Korea into South Korea on the time line required by the plan," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. "That's not to say they wouldn't get there. It's just that they wouldn't get there as quickly because of the commitments that we have in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so certainly initially we would be especially dependent on the Navy and the Air Force."

The United States, however, will be able to send extra ground troops to Korea in time after the completion of the proposed drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq in 2011, Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

"I would only add that, as you look at the time line that you just described -- end of '11, Army's out of -- we're out of Iraq -- it's the beginning of reset, really, for the Army in terms of equipment and actually training," Mullen said. "Ideally, probably a year or two before we're well into that, to be able to do it ... on a time line we choose."

Mullen was responding to a question from Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa), saying that if the U.S. "could not meet our warfare commitments with the Army for, like, (Operational Plan) 5027 in South Korea, but that the Air Force and the Navy and the others could back that up with acceptable risk."

North Korea recently warned of a "sacred war" against South Korea over reports that Seoul had come up with a new Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029 in case of regime change or any other contingencies in the nuclear-armed communist state.

Talk of such contingency plans abounded last year amid rumors of a power transition to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's third and youngest son Jong-un, 27, after the senior Kim apparently suffered a stroke in the summer of 2008.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior U.S. officials have publicly discussed contingency plans for the North, but China, Pyongyang's biggest benefactor, has refused to talk openly with the U.S. about its contingency plans for North Korea in order not to provoke its communist ally.

A report issued by the Council on Foreign Relations last year said that South Korea, the United States and their allies would need to send up to 460,000 troops -- three times more than the number of U.S. troops deployed in Iraq -- to help maintain stability in North Korea in case of its collapse.

The report noted that securing North Korea's weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads, chemical and biological weapons and long range missiles, should be a top priority.

"Locating, safeguarding, and disposing of materials and stockpiles of the North's estimated six to eight nuclear weapons, four thousand tons of chemical weapons, and any biological weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program, would be a high priority, especially for the United States," it said.

North Korea detonated its second nuclear device in May last year, after an earlier test in 2006, and is believed to possess ballistic missiles capable of reaching western parts of the mainland U.S.

The report also stressed the need for the U.S. to seek "a quiet dialogue" with China "to reduce the risk of misunderstanding and friction in a crisis involving North Korea."

hdh@yna.co.kr