Wednesday, June 29, 2005

US Commander in SK says US can repel any NK attack

Here's a Reuters report about an interview that the commander of US forces in South Korea gave yesterday. He reiterates that US and SK forces can repel any potential attack NK may launch, regardless whether Pyongyang has nukes. He says he believes NK has at least 2 nukes.

1 comment:

Ahistoricality said...

Was there ever any doubt that the US could beat North Korea? In the long run, of course: North Korea could use up its entire arsenal in about a week, and then they'd be throwing sticks and rocks. Of course, by then, if the worst-case scenario is correct, several Japanese and US cities would be radioactive rubble, Seoul would be suitable only for tank-training excercises, and the odds are pretty good that we'd have bombed North Korea back to whatever prehistoric age we chose.

Even in a best-case scenario, "beating" North Korea would probably mean devastating damage to Seoul and some damage to Japan.

And if the North Koreans take a lesson from Iraq, all bets are off as to when or whether a "Mission Accomplished" sign would fly...

Note, though, that LaPorte also includes "deter" in his capabilities. That assumes that Kim Jong Il is making rational decisions based on the same basic premises that his scenario-geeks are using. What's his basis for that, I wonder?

He's trying to be reassuring. It doesn't really tell us much about how things would play out.