From Chosun.com:
Officers 'Baffled' by New Focus of Korea-U.S. Joint Drill
South Korean military officers were baffled in a briefing last week by the sudden change in focus of the South Korea-U.S. joint annual drill which willl begin late this month. Due to military confidentiality, they were only informed of details of the exercise without full explanations of the revised conceptual changes of the drill.
Until last year, the drill envisioned a full-scale war with North Korea, but this year's exercises envisage a sudden change in the North and local provocations.
The previous drills focused on the urgent dispatch of large U.S. troop reinforcements and equipment -- 690,000 troops, about 160 warships including five aircraft carrier fleets, and about 2,500 aircraft -- to the Korean Peninsula, marching up to an area north of Pyongyang, and bringing down the regime.
But the upcoming drill will follow on a contingency plan that envisions six scenarios for sudden change in the North. Sources say the conceptual plan, numbered 5029, has become a concrete operational plan including troop mobilization and deployment. It covers civil war sparked by a failed transition of power to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un or a coup after Kim senior's death; instability caused by public riots; insurgents' seizure or smuggling of weapons of mass destruction; a mass exodus of North Koreans; a massive natural disaster; and kidnapping of South Korean citizens in the North.
The two militaries will also practice dealing with Chinese troops that could march into the North at the regime's request if a civil war should break out.
The South Korean and U.S. governments are mulling plans to bring such situations under control by forming a UN peacekeeping force consisting of South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan, and Russia in efforts to quell opposition from China in case of a sudden change in the North.
Many members of the U.S. Army 20th Support Command stationed in Maryland will participate in the upcoming drill. They have been taking part in WMD-related drills since 2009. Some 150 of them participated in 2009, 350 in 2010.
englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 15, 2011 12:45 KST
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/02/15/2011021501027.html
Why the Focus of Korea-U.S. Military Drills Is Changing
This year's joint South Korea-U.S. military drills are to change significantly at Washington initiatives. U.S. joint chiefs of staff chairman Michael Mullen told his South Korean counterpart Lee Sang-eui at a regular meeting in Seoul in October 2009 that exercises preparing for an emergency in North Korea are needed, and U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Walter Sharp, too, called for a change in the framework of the drill dubbed "Key Resolve/Foal Eagle."
Over the last decade, Washington has repeatedly reinforced a contingency plan for what is grouped as "sudden changes" in the North, despite objections by the Roh Moo-hyun administration. When North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke in August 2008, Washington became even more convinced that an emergency could happen in the North at any time. One destabilizing factor could be the handover of power from Kim to his son Jong-un.
The Barack Obama administration thinks that Kim Jong-il may not live another five years, so military drills are necessary to minimize the chaos on the Korean Peninsula in an emergency. But at the same time Washington believes that the chances that the North will wage a full-scale war, which was the focus of the previous drills, are diminishing due to its economic difficulties and obsolete military equipment.
The primary reason why Washington is worried about these sudden changes in North Korea is the so-called weapons of mass destruction it is believed to have and which could fall into the wrong hands. That was also the U.S.' biggest concern when the Soviet Union collapsed. The North is estimated to have 50 kg of plutonium capable of making up to 10 nuclear weapons, and a certain amount of biochemical weapons.
englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 15, 2011 13:08 KST
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/02/15/2011021501047.html
Officers 'Baffled' by New Focus of Korea-U.S. Joint Drill
South Korean military officers were baffled in a briefing last week by the sudden change in focus of the South Korea-U.S. joint annual drill which willl begin late this month. Due to military confidentiality, they were only informed of details of the exercise without full explanations of the revised conceptual changes of the drill.
Until last year, the drill envisioned a full-scale war with North Korea, but this year's exercises envisage a sudden change in the North and local provocations.
The previous drills focused on the urgent dispatch of large U.S. troop reinforcements and equipment -- 690,000 troops, about 160 warships including five aircraft carrier fleets, and about 2,500 aircraft -- to the Korean Peninsula, marching up to an area north of Pyongyang, and bringing down the regime.
But the upcoming drill will follow on a contingency plan that envisions six scenarios for sudden change in the North. Sources say the conceptual plan, numbered 5029, has become a concrete operational plan including troop mobilization and deployment. It covers civil war sparked by a failed transition of power to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's son Jong-un or a coup after Kim senior's death; instability caused by public riots; insurgents' seizure or smuggling of weapons of mass destruction; a mass exodus of North Koreans; a massive natural disaster; and kidnapping of South Korean citizens in the North.
The two militaries will also practice dealing with Chinese troops that could march into the North at the regime's request if a civil war should break out.
The South Korean and U.S. governments are mulling plans to bring such situations under control by forming a UN peacekeeping force consisting of South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan, and Russia in efforts to quell opposition from China in case of a sudden change in the North.
Many members of the U.S. Army 20th Support Command stationed in Maryland will participate in the upcoming drill. They have been taking part in WMD-related drills since 2009. Some 150 of them participated in 2009, 350 in 2010.
englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 15, 2011 12:45 KST
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/02/15/2011021501027.html
Why the Focus of Korea-U.S. Military Drills Is Changing
This year's joint South Korea-U.S. military drills are to change significantly at Washington initiatives. U.S. joint chiefs of staff chairman Michael Mullen told his South Korean counterpart Lee Sang-eui at a regular meeting in Seoul in October 2009 that exercises preparing for an emergency in North Korea are needed, and U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Walter Sharp, too, called for a change in the framework of the drill dubbed "Key Resolve/Foal Eagle."
Over the last decade, Washington has repeatedly reinforced a contingency plan for what is grouped as "sudden changes" in the North, despite objections by the Roh Moo-hyun administration. When North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke in August 2008, Washington became even more convinced that an emergency could happen in the North at any time. One destabilizing factor could be the handover of power from Kim to his son Jong-un.
The Barack Obama administration thinks that Kim Jong-il may not live another five years, so military drills are necessary to minimize the chaos on the Korean Peninsula in an emergency. But at the same time Washington believes that the chances that the North will wage a full-scale war, which was the focus of the previous drills, are diminishing due to its economic difficulties and obsolete military equipment.
The primary reason why Washington is worried about these sudden changes in North Korea is the so-called weapons of mass destruction it is believed to have and which could fall into the wrong hands. That was also the U.S.' biggest concern when the Soviet Union collapsed. The North is estimated to have 50 kg of plutonium capable of making up to 10 nuclear weapons, and a certain amount of biochemical weapons.
englishnews@chosun.com / Feb. 15, 2011 13:08 KST
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/02/15/2011021501047.html
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