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DoD News Briefing

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Q: China. A couple of items, the upcoming official visit. How concerned is the United States about China's sale of weaponry to unfriendly possibly rogue nations, in particular advanced weaponry. What does the United States plan to do about that during its visit, if anything?

A: We've been carrying on an extensive dialogue with China about proliferation, and China has signed on to a number of international agreements designed to curb the proliferation of dangerous weapons. These talks with China about exports are continuing, and they will be a central... They've been a central part of the preparation for the summit, and they will be an important element of the summit, but I think I'll let the White House talk about that when the summit begins.

Q: China's ballistic missile program is also advancing. Does China possess ballistic missile technology capable of reaching the United States? And is that a concern on the part of the United States?

A: China has a small, long range ballistic missile force. It would be called minuscule compared to ours in terms of numbers, or compared to Russia's in terms of numbers. You can read the size of the force in the Military Balance put out by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, but it's, according to them, less than two dozen missiles of intercontinental ballistic range.

I think in talking about anybody's military, you have to divide capability from intentions. We see China does have some capability in the strategic missile field, but it's a rather limited capability.

Q: Capable of reaching the continental United States?

A: It does have a small number of intercontinental ballistic missiles that are probably capable of reaching the United States.

Q: A slightly more positive note on the same subject, is the United States engaged or planning any military-to-military exchanges or combined exercises or anything along these lines for the near future?

A: First of all, as you know, the Chinese Defense Minister Chi came here late last year and held meetings with then Defense Secretary Perry at the same time he met with then Senator Cohen who was about to become the Secretary of Defense. We started then a series of discussions with China on a number of issues. One, for instance, is sort of a maritime rules of the road agreement that would help us deal with disputes involving naval ships. We've talked about exchanging port visits, and we have exchanged port visits. We've talked about exchanges of visits by high ranking military officers, and those have occurred. General Shalikashvili went to China, for instance. Chinese officials have come here.

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Q: Korea. In that conference, subcommittee on Tuesday, two defectors from North Korea, Colonel Choy and Mr. Ko, testified, I think most importantly, Colonel Choy told about Kim Jung Il's strategy to inflict as many casualties on U.S. forces as possible early in an offense on the Korean Peninsula. He did testify that he thought that the No Dong missiles could, in fact, be ready presently for such a missile offensive against U.S. forces in Japan and South Korea.

My question, basically, is the committee experts say that the most advanced of the Patriot anti-missile systems can't effectively act against, to counter the No Dong. Are the U.S. forces going to receive some protection from the THAAD or other types of more advanced, anti-ballistic missiles?

A: The THAAD is still under development. One of the reasons we're working so aggressively to develop new theater missile defense systems is precisely to be able to counter the type of systems that North Korea has invested heavily in. We have, in the last several years, since 1994, taken a number of very important steps to bolster our forces in South Korea. One of the things we've done is to bring in a more modern version of the Patriots to improve our theater missile defense capabilities there. We've also strengthened our helicopter forces; we've strengthened our counter-battery radar; we've taken a number of other steps there.

We are fully aware of, we believe, of what the North Korean military capabilities are, and we have worked very hard to develop counter forces to those capabilities.

Q: So the Defense Department believes there is a threat from these No Dongs that could come against U.S. forces currently? Is there a clear and present danger?

A: The North Koreans aren't developing the No Dong missile for the sheer joy of developing missiles, and we're very aware of what they're doing and we're very aware of what the threat is, and we believe we're taking prudent actions to counter those threats. We believe that although the North Korean force is large and stationed close to the border; although they're working on new missiles, we know that; we believe that our force is extremely potent, is extremely well trained, is extremely well equipped, and we hope that neither force will be used. But we think we have a force that is very adequate to the challenge that it could possibly face on the Korean Peninsula.

Q: Can we go back to a previous subject very briefly? This whole thing about the laser. You said we know some effects it had on the sensors. What were the effects? Did it in any way blind or denigrate [the sensors]?

A: No.

Q: Temporarily? What are the effects you know it had on the sensors.

A: We don't believe that it disabled the sensors at these levels, but as I say, the results are still being analyzed and we won't know the full answers to some of these questions for some time.

Q: To put it another way, after the two minutes of testing, was the satellite as functional, operationally function as...

A: I can't answer that question. We're still evaluating that information.

Q: Iraq. Can you give us an update? Is it pretty quiet over there? No more violations of the no-fly zone?

A: There have been no violations of the southern no-fly zone for over two weeks; and there continue to be some intermittent violations, not on a daily basis, in the north. They all occur at times when our planes are not in the box, so to speak. They seem to be calculated to take place at times when we're not in the area. They seem to be calculated not to present a direct confrontation with our forces.

Press: Thank you.