Allies toughen stance against NK

Defense chiefs agree to complete joint operational plan on provocations

By Kim Young-jin

The South Korean and U.S. defense chiefs said Friday that they would complete a joint operational plan this year to respond to future provocations by North Korea, saying further aggression was “not to be tolerated.”

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the “South Korea-U.S. Counter-Provocation Plan” would further improve response readiness for possible North Korean aggressions after meeting for the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) in Seoul.

“We reaffirmed our determination that we will respond resolutely against any future provocations or infiltrations by North Korea,” Kim said during a joint press conference following the talks. “We will complete our counter-provocation plan this year to establish an effective response mechanism against North Korean provocations.”

Tensions remain high on the peninsula after Pyongyang last year sank one of the South’s warships and shelled Yeonpyeong Island in separate attacks that killed a total of 50 South Koreans and sent peninsular tensions to their worst point in decades.

The plan will “display our strong willingness to strike back if North Korea carries out provocations and stage effective joint responses not only in the case of all-out war but to provocations,” Kim said.

He added that the United States had pledged to provide "overwhelming reinforcements" in case of any contingency on the peninsula, while Panetta reiterated that U.S. troop levels here would remain at 28,500 despite spending cuts at the Pentagon.

Panetta, visiting for the first time since he replaced Robert Gates as Pentagon chief, expressed Washington’s full commitment to the defense of South Korea, noting that the North remains a “serious threat” to the region.

“Our view is that we have an alliance between the United States and the ROK (South Korea) and that we can provide strong and effective responses to those kinds of provocations if we work together,” he said, adding that Pyongyang should not misjudge “our capability to respond decisively to nuclear aggression.”

Concerns are rising that the North might unleash additional provocations as it attempts to pass power from leader Kim Jong-il to his youngest son and heir Kim Jong-un. Such moves would help bolster the junior Kim’s standing among military elite, analysts say.

In a joint statement, the defense chiefs said the plan would advance the allies’ deterrence capabilities in a “more practical and concrete manner” and include increased planning for various scenarios, extensive combined training and exercises and bolstered readiness at border islands along the hotly-contested Northern Limit Line (NLL).

They would also increase monitoring of the North in the run-up to the Nuclear Security Summit to be hosted by Seoul in March.

In the past, only South Korean forces responded to North Korean provocations. The plan is seen as a way for Washington to assist Seoul in the case of another attack, including the possible mobilization of American troops here or elsewhere in the region.

Kim and Panetta urged Pyongyang to respect the NLL that was drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the Korean War (1950-53), saying it should "accept the practical value of and abide by" it.

The North last year also conflagrated regional tensions by revealing a uranium enrichment program (UEP) that experts say provides a second track to producing weapons of mass destruction.

The defense chiefs reiterated the view of both governments that the North’s UEP constitutes a “grave threat” to the region, urging Pyongyang to cease its nuclear programs under past agreements of the six-party talks on its denuclearization. The multilateral forum also includes Japan, Russia and China.

Seoul and Washington are pushing the North to halt its UEP and allow for international verification of the move and other concrete denuclearization steps before the forum resumes. Pyongyang has insisted on coming back to the table “without preconditions” but U.S. officials said this week that differences had been narrowed after holding rare talks with the North in Geneva.