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Topic: U.S. Forces to be ready for possible deployment over N. Korea crisis!
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Kindgo
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N. Korea 'ready in case of U.S. attack'
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Weekend News Today
Lead: Faith
Source: CNN/AP & Reuters
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Mon Feb 3,2003 -- A top North Korean military official says the country's troops are ready in case of an attack by the United States. As a nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula shows signs of escalating, Radio Pyongyang, the country's official media, quoted the Korean people's army chief as vowing loyalty to president Kim Jong Il, who it said had made weekend visits to 2 army units. The saber-rattling coincided with reports the United States was shoring up its military presence in South Korea amid signs the North may be moving closer to nuclear weapons development in the 3-month old impasse. On Friday U.S. officials said spy satellites had detected trucks taking fuel rods out of storage. Shortly afterwards, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific asked that additional planes and ships be sent to the region as a signal to North Korea.
The nuclear standoff on the peninsula began in October when U.S. officials said the North had admitted having a 2nd nuclear program in violation of a 1994 pact with Washington. Washington and its allies in December suspended oil shipments to North Korea promised under that deal North Korea broke. So, Pyongyang reactivated its nuclear facilities, expelled U.N. monitors and pulled out of a global nuclear arms control treaty. Despite a flurry of international diplomatic efforts, North Korea remains defiant. The United States wants to bring the issue before the U.N. Security Council, which could eventually impose economic or political sanctions on the isolationist North. Pyongyang has rejected the move.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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Kindgo
Advanced Member
Member # 2
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posted
Trafield it seems we have wars and rumors of wars.
Its like a fright train coming, theres no stopping it.
I am lookin up! ![[Kiss]](graemlins/Kiss.gif)
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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Trafield
unregistered
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I believe things are going to be getting real ugly pretty soon! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
![[Prayer]](graemlins/prayer.gif)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JBLAMOFGDZKSWCRBAEOCFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=2162178
US Forces Get Deployment Alert Over N.Korea Crisis
Mon February 3, 2003 07:15 PM ET
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. bombers, fighter jets and warships have been alerted for possible deployment to the western Pacific to deter any aggression by North Korea in case of a war in Iraq, U.S. defense officials said on Monday.
The officials told Reuters that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had not issued any final orders to move B-52 bombers, F-16 fighter jets or naval units closer to the tense Korean peninsula, now gripped in a nuclear crisis.
The additional forces were requested by Adm. Thomas Fargo, who directs U.S. forces in the Pacific and Asia from Hawaii.
"If such forces are moved, it would be done as a precautionary deterrent presence against any North Korean aggression in the event of a war in Iraq," said one of the defense officials, who asked not to be identified.
Washington has said it intends to settle differences with Pyongyang peacefully and officials stressed the possible deployment did not include any ground forces to join the 37,000 U.S. troops now stationed in South Korea.
The goal is to maintain the status quo of the region's military balance, they said.
The Pentagon refused to confirm any alert of forces.
"It is standard practice for us to review our defensive posture for existing security commitments when U.S. forces are preparing for potential operations elsewhere in the world," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
"Such planning could result in the movement of forces, but only as a prudent measure to ensure we maintain our ability to rapidly respond to contingencies if needed," he told Reuters.
"As the president has said, we seek a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the North Korean nuclear situation," Davis added.
MOVEMENTS CONTEMPLATED
Officials said additional F-16 fighter jets could be moved from the United States to bases in Japan and heavy B-52 or B-1B bombers could be moved to within emergency striking distance of North Korea -- perhaps to Guam.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in Hawaii might also be deployed toward the troubled Korean peninsula if the carrier USS Kitty Hawk is ordered to leave the western Pacific and head for the Gulf in the event President Bush decides to launch an invasion of Iraq, officials said.
North Korea said on Monday its troops were at the ready in case of any U.S. "military and political moves" against it as tensions rose over the crisis on the peninsula.
The U.N. agency that oversaw a freeze in the communist state's nuclear program until it was thrown out in December also said it would hold an emergency session on Feb. 12 and was likely to ask the U.N. Security Council to take up the issue.
U.S. officials said last Friday that U.S. spy satellites showed North Korea was moving fuel rods around a key nuclear complex, including possibly some of the 8,000 spent fuel rods that experts consider a key tripwire in bomb-building.
But there was no sign that crucial reprocessing of those spent fuel rods had begun, they added.
SENATE DEMOCRATS
Leading Senate Democrats expressed alarm at these developments and faulted the administration for failing to inform Congress and for attempting to play down the problem.
"This muted response to the world's worst proliferator taking concrete steps that could permit it to build a nuclear arsenal stands in stark contrast to the president's statement (in his State of the Union speech) that the 'gravest danger in the war on terror ... is the outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical and biological weapons,"' they said in a letter to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
The senators accused the administration of lacking a clear and consistent policy, said the failure to take concrete steps to address the North Korean problem has sown confusion and asked Rice to brief the Senate as soon as possible.
Those signing the letter were Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota; Joe Biden of Delaware, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and Carl Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Korean crisis was sparked last October when Washington said Pyongyang admitted to developing a highly enriched uranium program in violation of a 1994 accord, under which the North froze its nuclear program in exchange for two nuclear energy reactors and economic assistance.
But Secretary of State Colin Powell took pains last week to reaffirm the United States had "no intention of attacking" North Korea and was ready to convey that assurance in a way "that makes sense and ... is unmistakable."
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