SEOUL, South Korea — The United States military said Monday that it had signed an agreement with South Korea on how to counter provocations from North Korea. Multimedia Multimedia Feature Timeline on North Korea’s Nuclear Program Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors The deal, struck on Friday, defines the role that United States forces would play in dealing with what South Korean military officials called local clashes and skirmishes, like the shelling of an island near the border in 2010 by the North, which killed four South Koreans. The two allies described the new contingency plans developed after that episode as “South Korean-led, U.S.-supported.†They lay out various types of provocations and a joint South Korean-American response for each type, South Korean officials said. Putting those commitments down on paper will help deter provocations, they said. The two allies refused to disclose specifics about how far the United States would go in its supporting role, especially at what point American troops would directly join a South Korean counterattack against a North Korean provocation. In recent weeks, South Korea has said that if provoked, it would attack not only the origin of the North Korean provocation but also “its supporting forces and its commanding post.†“By completing this plan, we improved our combined readiness posture to allow us to immediately and decisively respond to any North Korean provocation,†a joint statement from the two allies said. The plan was signed by Gen. James D. Thurman, the top American commander in South Korea, and Gen. Jung Seung-jo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South Korean military. The signing followed a recent series of North Korean threats after the United States and South Korea supported sanctions the United Nations imposed on the North for its launching of a three-stage rocket in December and its third nuclear test last month. Although analysts in South Korea said there was little chance for North Korea to follow through on its threat to strike Washington and Seoul with nuclear weapons, they warned that it might attempt a limited military provocation against the South. South Korea was unsettled last week when hacking attacks paralyzed the computer networks of three broadcasters and three banks. Many here suspected North Korean involvement in the synchronized attacks. The new contingency plan comes at a delicate time in the 60-year-old military alliance. The wartime operational control of the South Korean military, which has belonged to an American general since the beginning of the 1950-53 Korean War, is scheduled to return to South Korea in 2015. An annual military drill that ended last week was led for the first time by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/w...ign-plan-to-counter-north.html?ref=asia&_r=1&
Avalon Project - Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea; October 1, 1953
U.S. B-2 stealth bomber conducts first-ever firing drill in Korea The United States air force's nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers carried out its first-ever firing drill over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, the Combined Forces Command said, sending another strong warning to North Korea, which has threatened a preemptive nuclear attack on the U.S. and South Korea. The U.S. Strategic Command sent two B-2 Spirit Bombers for "a long-duration, round-trip training mission" from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, U.S, to South Korea in a demonstration of the country's defense of South Korea and to provide "extended deterrence to its allies in the Asia-Pacific region," the CFC said in a release. The drill was part of the ongoing bilateral Foal Eagle training exercise, which began on March 1 and will run through April 30, to test the combat readiness of the allies. Yonhapnews Agency - Mobile
Something is really happening in the Korean peninsula The situation is tense and war can indeed break out
The US is "prepared" to engage in a 'conventional' war with North Korea but it requires time to adjust to the new front, says the military. Gen. George Casey appearing at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday said the US was ready to enter an old-fashioned war with North Korea if necessary. However, he said, "It would probably take us a little bit longer to shift gears" away from the type of counterinsurgency fighting that now occupies the Army. Casey was referring the US two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We'd move forces as rapidly as we could get them prepared," Casey insisted. The US army's chief of staff refrained from suggesting how long it would take to redeploy the army in the new front on the Korean peninsula, but said that the US army was "combat seasoned" and could move quickly. "The mechanical skills of artillery gunnery and tank gunnery come back very, very quickly," he said. "The harder part is the integration - that really brigade level and above of massing fires and effects in a very constricted period of time as opposed to what you do in a counterinsurgency over a much longer extended period of time." North Korea violated international treaties by conducting a nuclear test and test-firing nuclear-capable missiles, despite international warnings and UN Security Council resolutions. While thousand of US soldiers stationed in South Korean bases are on high alert, the US defense secretary, Robert Gates, maintains that North Korea's actions have not reached a crisis level that would warrant additional US troops in the region. "What we do have, though, are two new developments that are very provocative, that are aggressive, accompanied by very aggressive rhetoric," Gates said. "And I think it brings home the reality of the challenge that North Korea poses to the region and to the international community." I expect that the some 11000 missiles carried by the Navy already have their targeting information and B2 bombers are already makeing targeting runs on S Korean targets by now. I dont know if the US still has nuclear land mines in Korea or not. Atomic demolition munitions (ADMs), colloquially known as nuclear land mines, are small nuclear explosive devices. ... were deployed in South Korea ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_land_mine - Cached
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