US Repositioning Troops For Attack: North Korea

Oct. 22, 2004

SEOUL: North Korea accused the United States on Saturday of preparing for a preemptive attack against Pyongyang by repositioning its military resources in South Korea and the region.

Pyongyang‚s news media said the US demands for multilateral talks to resolve the standoff over North Korea‚s nuclear weapons programme were a disguise for its military ambitions.

" Finding it hard to settle the nuclear issue as Washington intends and implement its policy to stifle the DPRK (North Korea), the US seeks to attain its criminal aim at any cost by mounting a preemptive attack on it," said Minju Joson, North Korea‚s official government daily.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the planned repositioning of US troops stationed in South Korea was aimed at occupying " positions favorable for mounting a preemptive attack on the North" .

The United States and South Korea agreed in June to gradually reposition US forces away from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas in one of the biggest realignment of forces there since the Korean War.

The main force affected by the move is the US Army‚s 2nd Infantry Division, about 15,000 troops now scattered among dozens of camps and bases near the DMZ. South Korea plays host to some 37,000 US troops.

US ground forces have been deployed as a " trip wire" along the zone since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War, ensuring that an invasion from the north would immediately draw the US into the conflict.

But at the same time, their presence near the border makes them vulnerable to onslaughts from the North, especially from artillery attacks.

KCNA said two dozen long-range US bombers were deployed in Guam in the West Pacific in March and F-117 Stealth fighters which were sent to South Korea in March for an annual drill have remained there.

" It is quite clear that these dangerous military moves being staged by the US behind the scene of multilateral talks are aimed to mount an attack on the DPRK," the KCNA said.

" The US should not misjudge the DPRK. In case the US mounts a preemptive attack on it, the DPRK will take self- defensive measures involving all means equivalent to what the US will use," it added. ˜AFP

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