The United States had prepared for contingency plans for North Korea, including an option for a nuclear strike, after the downing of a U.S. flight by the reclusive communist state in April 1969, Yonhap News reported in Washington Wednesday.
A declassified dossier posted on the Web site for the National Security Archive at George Washington University showed that the nuclear contingency plan, codenamed "FREEDOM DROP," seeks to provide "pre-coordinated options for the selective use of tactical nuclear weapons against North Korea."
The document dated June 25, 1969, that was sent to Henry Kissinger, national security adviser to then President Richard Nixon, by Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, calls for use of a combination of U.S. tactical bombers, Honest John and Sergeant missiles and an aircraft carrier to deliver a wide range of nuclear bombs, with up to 70 kilotons, to a number of command control centers, airfields, naval bases and missile support facilities.
In case of nuclear attacks on North Korea, the report estimated the losses of U.S., South Korean and other allied forces at less than 10 percent of the forces, while putting civilian casualties at around 100 to several thousands.
The final version of a series of reports to Kissinger on the North Korea contingency plans since April, written on Sept. 22, 1969, however, does not contain the nuclear options, although several parts of the document were deleted with black ink as classification material.
Robert Wampler of George Washington University said on the Web site that, "Based on the information available in the earlier documents, the deleted material in the list of completed plans is likely Plan FREEDOM DROP for tactical nuclear operations against North Korea."
The Nixon administration did not implement any of the aforementioned military options on North Korea, but it prepared for further major provocations from the North after the downing of the reconnaissance flight over the sky of the East Sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan that killed 31 on board.