DoD News Briefing
Thursday, June 17, 1999 - 2:05 p.m.
Presenter: Captain Mike Doubleday, DASD PA
...............
Q: The state of tension today between North and South Korea two days after the patrol boat was sunk?
Captain Doubleday: Let me just see if I've got anything on that.
There has been no contact between North Korean and South Korean naval vessels again today. There was none yesterday. This is a situation that certainly we're interested in seeing that it is defused.
Q: Are there any more assets identified to send over to Korea? Yesterday was the four EA-6Bs. Are there any other surveillance airplanes detached over there?
Captain Doubleday: I'm not aware of any additional assets that have been sent to the region.
Q: The progress of the two cruisers that were sent over?
Captain Doubleday: Well, now, first of all, I think that it's probably inaccurate to say "sent over." These are assets that belong in the region. They're forward-deployed in the region. The purpose of forward-deploying forces in the region is to have them readily available for exercises, operations, for any kind of support that may be required. So I don't think that it should be viewed as all that unusual that the USS VINCENNES and the USS MOBILE BAY were put out to sea to kind of monitor the situation.
The situation right now seems to have returned to a more normal state of affairs, and certainly that was our overall goal.
My understanding is that at least in the case of the VINCENNES, it is off the coast of Korea.
Q: Mike, in the course of this mini-crisis off Korea, was there any evidence at any point that the DPRK ground forces or air forces went onto a heightened state of alert or made any untoward movements?
Captain Doubleday: Not that I'm aware of.
Q: Does the DoD feel that this dispute, this off-shore dispute between the two Koreas is rooted in fishing rights, is rooted in a boundary dispute, or it has some other root cause?
Captain Doubleday: I think that is a question that would better be asked to the State Department. I really am not in a position to assess what the root cause is.
Q: Are there fishermen back in that area, or is it just vacant of all...
Captain Doubleday: No. They are separated from one another, and they are above the Northern Limit Line there.
..............Q: Mike, the Washington Times today had a story saying that the Taepo Dong-2, there will be another test shot of the Taepo Dong-2 fairly soon. That's a significant development, if true. Can the DoD give a sense of whether the thrust of the article was correct?
Captain Doubleday: First of all we, of course, take great interest in missile developments in North Korea. We watch that very carefully. But we don't normally share publicly our assessment of exactly what the status of those developments are.
The one thing we have said, though, is that it certainly would not be helpful to the overall stability of the region to have another one of those Taepo Dong launch tests.
Q: Is the thrust of the article correct? I mean it's not violating sources and methods to give a sense one way or the other.
Captain Doubleday: I think it's clear from everything that we've said in the past that we certainly expect at some point in the future to see additional tests. We watch that very carefully. But I'm not going to pinpoint for you when we think that they may occur.
.............Press: Thank you.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun1999/t06171999_t0617asd.html
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