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N Korea threatens attack on US bases

* 690,000 US troops will defend South Korea in case of war

SEOUL: North Korea will turn US military bases in the region into a “sea of fire” if war breaks out on the Korean peninsula, state media on Friday quoted an air force officer as saying.

“There are no limitations in the striking power of our armed force. If US imperialists ignite flames of war, we will strike all their bases first and turn them into a sea of fire,” officer Huh Ryong told North Korea’s Central Radio monitored by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. The officer also warned that North Korea would “thoroughly” wipe out those who collude with the United States, referring to its allies South Korea and Japan, which host US military bases.

He made his comment Wednesday during an anti-US rally by senior party, government and military officials in Pyongyang, Yonhap said. The rally, called “the general march of the Songun (army-first) revolution”, was held ahead of a key policy speech by US President George W Bush.

The Stalinist country has held similar meetings since a standoff with the United States erupted in October 2002 over its nuclear weapons drive.

At Wednesday’s rally, premier Pak Pong-Ju urged North Koreans to counter “US moves for aggression with a decisive and merciless military strike”, accusing the United States of seeking to disarm North Korea and bring down its system “at any cost”.

Kim adopted the Songun revolution as his ruling mantra two years ago at the height of a crisis over its nuclear program which has increased the country’s diplomatic isolation and economic difficulties.

North Korea attended three rounds of inconclusive six-nation nuclear crisis talks, which also included South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China.

Pyongyang shunned a fourth round originally scheduled for September, complaining of “hostile” US policies.

US servicemen: The United States will deploy some 690,000 military personnel to help defend South Korea in case of an outbreak of war, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said in a White Paper released Friday.

The new White Paper, the first in four years, tried to sidestep a political minefield by avoiding naming the enemy US forces might have to fight against.

North Korea is no longer South Korea’s “main enemy,” a phrase that angered the Stalinist state when it was included in the last White Paper in 2000 and has been left out of this one.

Now, North Korea is simply referred to as a “military threat,” in the new policy document that reflects the South Korean goverment’s goal of reconciliation with Pyongyang.

The 2004 Defence White Paper said more than 690,000 servicemen in augmentation forces would be brought in to the Korean peninsula in case of an all-out war, including the army, navy, air force, and marine corps units.

The augmentation forces would be dispatched to join more than 30,000 US troops already based here and some 650,000 South Korea forces.

North Korea army was 1.17 million strong in 2004, the world’s fifth largest and the same as four years earlier, but the communist country has added artillery guns and multiple rocket launchers totaling 1,000 pieces since then, the White Paper said. US forces deployed to the Korean peninsula would be made up of army divisions, carrier battle groups with advanced fighter planes, tactical fighter wings, and marine expeditionary forces based on the Japanese island of Okinawa and on the US mainland, the policy document said.

“The United States has a plan to send more than 40 percent of its entire navy, more than half of its airforce and more than 70 percent of its marine corps to defend South Korea,” it said. “This shows the United States is firmly determined in its will to help defend the Korean Korean peninsula,” the White Paper said.

The augmentation forces of more than 690,000 US military personnel would be backed by 160 vessels and 1,600 aircraft, according to the White Paper. afp

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