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Seoul (AFP) Nov 1, 2009 The United States and its ally South Korea have drawn up a contingency plan to cope with emergencies in North Korea, including a possible regime change there, a report said Sunday. "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029" was completed by Seoul and Washington recently, Yonhap news agency said, quoting an unnamed Seoul source. It dictates how to respond case-by-case to such emergencies in North Korea as a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), a mass influx of refugees or a natural disaster, Yonhap said. Under the plan, the United States assumes the role of eliminating North Korea's WMDs, including its nuclear weapons, while South Korean troops play a leading role in most other parts, it said. Officials at Seoul's defence ministry were not immediately available for comment on the report. North Korea has strongly protested at US-South Korean discussions of contingency plans which it denounces as preparations to invade the communist state. Such discussions had been suspended under the previous liberal Seoul government which feared such a plan could infringe on its own sovereignty. Yonhap said the discussions resumed after conservative President Lee Myung-Bak took office last year, with the plan completed recently. "If South Korean-US combined forces intervene in North Korea's internal instabilities, the South Korean military will mostly assume the leading role in consideration of neighbouring countries," the source told Yonhap. "But the US military will be responsible for the removal of the North's nuclear facilities and weapons." Both sides are concerned about a possible transfer of the North's WMDs and relevant technology to terrorist groups or other countries, the source said. The source added South Korea and the US would continue to complement and develop specific details of the contingency plan. The two Koreas remain technically at war after the 1950-1953 Korean conflict ended in a fragile armistice rather than a peace treaty. The United States stations some 28,500 troops to bolster South Korea's 655,000-strong armed forces against North Korea's 1.2 million-member military.
earlier related report The proposed law would help Japan enforce a United Nations resolution designed to punish the isolated regime for its second nuclear test in May. Unlike a bill that died with the previous conservative government ousted in August elections, the proposal tabled by the centre-left government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama would not involve Japan's navy. Under the bill, Japanese coastguard and customs inspectors would require the consent of a ship's captain before boarding a vessel and carrying out cargo inspections mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 1874. Japan's new leaders have backed away from the more hawkish stance of the former government but have maintained a strong line against North Korea. Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said the cabinet had in a morning session decided to submit the bill on Friday in the lower house of the Diet. "After this bill is enacted, relevant ministries will need to cooperate to collect information to carry out cargo inspections appropriately," he said. The government of then premier Taro Aso submitted a bill in July which would have authorised the Maritime Self-Defence Forces to take part in inspections but it was aborted when Aso dissolved the Diet and called elections. Relations have long been tense between Japan, which once colonised the Korean peninsula, and communist North Korea, whose agents in the 1970s and 80s abducted Japanese citizens to help train Pyongyang's spies. After North Korea staged its first nuclear test in 2006, Japan imposed formal bilateral sanctions. It has since stopped all trade, frozen air and sea transport links and banned almost all visits by North Korean citizens. Pyongyang quit six-party denuclearisation talks -- between the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan -- after the UN Security Council censured it for a long-range rocket launch over Japan in April. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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NKorea blasts US over 'bunker-buster' bombsSeoul (AFP) Oct 27, 2009 North Korea accused the United States Tuesday of stepping up production and deployment of "bunker-buster" bombs to mount a pre-emptive attack on its nuclear sites. The United States is deploying the bombs "to attack underground military targets and nuclear facilities" in the North, the ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary. This proved that Washington has ... read more |
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