U.S. Seeks Ability to 'Take Down' N. Korea Quickly

Monday, June 2, 2003
(8:30 AM)
By Carol Giacomo
Reuters

U.S. officials said under plans now being developed, U.S. and South Korean forces would be consolidated in two general areas away from the DMZ and this would be more threatening to the North. In event of a war, these forces could skirt the DMZ and head straight for Pyongyang and the North Korean leadership.

TOKYO, Japan -- Reuters
U.S. plans to transform allied forces at the Korean demilitarized zone would be aimed ensuring U.S. and South Korean forces could begin "taking down" the North's frontline from the first hour of a war, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday.

General Leon Laporte, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, was working on a plan which was "quite a transformation in the way both our countries would be postured," the official said.

"While we can't completely compensate for the fact that North Korea has so much stuff right up forward on the DMZ, we could begin taking it down from the first hour of the war and that would make a big difference," the official said.

"It would save lives and ultimately it has to strengthen deterrence."

The communist North has thousands of loaded artillery pieces aimed at Seoul and half of its army is deployed within 40 miles of the DMZ dividing the peninsula, the world's most heavily fortified border.
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Dan