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Gen. Pace: We'll Defeat N. Korean Aggression
The top U.S. general said Friday that allied troops could turn back any North Korean attack but acknowledged that predicting Pyongyang’s actions wasn’t easy. "We are fully capable today of defeating any North Korean aggression and we will maintain that capacity,” said Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Understanding the intent of the North Korean regime is very difficult,” he said. "So not knowing what their intent is, you need to prepared to counter if their intent is ill.” Pace was in Seoul to appoint Army Gen. B.B. Bell as commander of U.S. forces in South Korea. He replaced Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, the longest serving American commander here who assumed his duties in May 2002.
Story Continues Below Pace declined to give specifics when asked about the North’s nuclear capability, but said the military needed to be prepared to dissuade the communist nation from using or proliferating atomic weapons, including "either the weapons themselves or the components of those weapons.” North Korea claimed a year ago to have nuclear weapons, but hasn’t performed any known tests to prove its arsenal. "Despite the progress of inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation, North Korea’s military threat and nuclear issue remain the biggest security threat to us,” South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said at the change-of-command ceremony. "We should have a strong combined defense posture to counter any threat.” About 29,500 U.S. troops are now based in the South, but their numbers are set to decline to 25,000 by 2008 as part of the Pentagon’s worldwide realignment of its forces. The Americans are also set to move their headquarters from Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul to Camp Humphreys in Pyongtaek, about 50 miles south of Seoul.
Bell said despite the changes in the U.S. military presence here, the combined forces were "producing a stronger and more capable alliance every day.” The top U.S. general here takes command of all forces on the peninsula — including South Korea’s — in the event of war. However, Seoul has expressed its desire to start discussions on it maintaining wartime command of its troops by this year. LaPorte challenged those who question the value of maintaining the alliance between South Korea and the United States, saying it was a vital force for stability in the region. Anti-U.S. sentiment has been rising in South Korea in recent years, focused in part on the American troops’ presence. The South Korea-U.S. "partnership is not only necessary to our regional interests, it is required,” he said. The two Koreas technically remain in a state of conflict, after the Korean War ended in a 1953 cease-fire. On other regional concerns, Pace downplayed any threat posed by China’s moves to bolster its military. "I am very optimistic about the future with regard to China. There is much more that the two countries have in common than we have not in common,” he said, citing greater economic ties that reduce potential for conflict.
© 06 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note:
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