Tracking Number: 329716
Title: "US Patriot Missiles Ready for Deployment to South Korea."
According to testimony of Admiral Charles Larson and General Gary Luck, the US stands ready to deploy Patriot Missiles to South Korea, but the decision now lies with the government in Seoul as to when to accept the sophisticated anti-aircraft/anti-missile defense system. (940302)
Author: MORSE, JANE A (USIA STAFF WRITER)
Date: 19940302
Text:
*EPF306
03/02/94
U.S. PATRIOT MISSILES READY FOR DEPLOYMENT TO SOUTH KOREA
(Article on Senate Armed Services Committee hearing) (880)
By Jane A. Morse
USIA Staff Writer
Washington -- The United States stands ready to deploy Patriot missiles to South Korea, but the decision now lies with the government in Seoul as to when to accept the sophisticated anti-aircraft/anti-ballistic missile defense system, according to top U.S. military officials.
At a March 2 hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Admiral Charles R. Larson, commander in chief of all U.S. forces in the Pacific, said: "I think it's fair to say that we are in agreement now with the South Korean government -- it's a matter of timing. It's not a matter of concept. It's not a matter of deployment. It's a matter of timing. And I don't think we're that far apart on that...."
Both sides agree on the usefulness of the Patriot in defending the Republic of Korea (ROK) from potential attack, CINCPAC Larson said, along with "the fact that we must at some point deploy this as part of our planning enhancement."
But Admiral Larson said the urgency he felt in upgrading defenses for South Korea has been reduced since December when it appeared that sanctions might be imposed on North Korea for its refusal to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"I don't feel the same military necessity now that I felt in December because we moved away from sanctions to another path," he said, noting the "widespread diplomatic initiative" undertaken by the United States and South Korea.
Larson said that a "step-by-step process is absolutely necessary to get a negotiated settlement for a non-nuclear North Korea." But failing a negotiated settlement, sanctions would be the logical outcome, he said. He explained that sanctions provide a whole range of possibilities, from countries agreeing to cut off trade with North Korea to a military blockade. The success of sanctions, he noted, would largely depend on the cooperation of China, which shares a long border with North Korea and provides the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with important resources such as oil.
Larson cautioned that "if we do go to sanctions, we've got to also understand that with sanctions goes some prudent enhancement measures that we would want to take to have the superior forces." This would include, he said, the deployment of the Patriot missile system.
General Gary E. Luck, commander in chief of combined U.S./ROK forces in South Korea, noted that the Patriots would serve primarily to protect not so much the civilian populace of South Korea, but the military capability of both ROK and U.S. forces in defending airfields and seaports.
General Luck said he had originally requested that the Patriots to be deployed to South Korea because, in a crisis situation, the Patriots would require in excess of 90 C5 aircraft over an "extensive" length of time. "I felt that I would rather get it (the Patriot missile) in country early and have it there so that I could use those 90 plus aircraft I might need more," Luck explained.
The United States is respecting the South Korean government's request "not to do anything that might unhinge the recent negotiations," Luck said. "We're holding in abeyance the deployment of those Patriots until such time that we have a collective decision."
Luck noted that North Korea has, over the years, increased its forces by some 250,000 men and repostured more than 60 percent of its total forces closer to South Korea. The North Korean military has also enhanced its mechanization and artillery capabilities, he said.
Luck said that although in the past year there has been nothing to suggest an impending attack from the North, warning time for U.S./ROK forces could only be expected to be 12 to 24 hours from a "standing start attack" on the part of North Korea.
If a war were to break out on the Korean peninsula, Luck said, the U.S./ROK forces would prevail, although the loss in life and property would be terrible. Noting that 36,000 American and some 400,000 South Korean soldiers were killed in action during the Korean War of 1950-1953, Luck said "You could reason from that, because of the increased lethality of (today's) battlefield that those would be estimates that might be bottom line."
Current war plans call for 400,000 U.S. soldiers to join the some 35,000 American servicemen already in South Korea. The additional forces could be delivered in a time frame spanning from within two weeks to 60 days, Luck said.
He said he was pleased with the program now underway to update a unified U.S./ROK warfighting strategy, which he said he hoped would be completed by this summer.
Luck said he was willing to cancel the annual joint military exercises for ROK/U.S. forces known as Team Spirit "if we could get some breakthrough in negotiations for a non-nuclear North Korea." But he said that if Team Spirit is to be canceled as part of the negotiations with North Korea, that decision would be made by the ROK government.
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File Identification: 03/02/94, EPF306
Product Name: Wireless File
Product Code: WF
Keywords: PATRIOT AIR DEFENSE MISSILE SYSTEM; SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS; MILITARY
TECHNOLOGY; MILITARY ASSISTANCE; KOREA (SOUTH)-US RELATIONS/Policy; KOREA (SOUTH)/Defense & Military; KOREA (NORTH)-KOREA (SOUTH) RELATIONS; KOREA (NORTH)/Def
Thematic Codes: 1EA; 1AC; 1DE
Target Areas: EA
PDQ Text Link: 329716
USIA Notes: *94030206.EPF
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