South Korea could mount swift and precise attacks on North Korea’s nuclear bases should war break out on the peninsula, Seoul’s incoming top military officer said yesterday.
General Lee Sang-eui, named as next chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Seoul had a list of major targets its forces would strike first should a conflict erupt.
Nuclear weaponry would pose the greatest threat, he told a parliamentary confirmation hearing, pledging to “mobilize all means available to precisely and swiftly strike” such bases.
New Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told his own confirmation hearing last week that Seoul knew where the North was storing its nuclear arsenal.
Kim said Seoul could strike the sites through quick consultations with Washington if North Korea tried to fire a nuclear weapon at the South.
Lee, quoted by Yonhap news agency, said the North was believed to have up to 40kg of plutonium, enough to build at least six nuclear bombs.
After months of hostility including missile and nuclear tests, Pyongyang began making peace noises to Washington and Seoul last month.
South Korean officials have expressed skepticism about the overtures, saying the hard-line communist state has not changed its fundamental attitude.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan accused the North last week of developing nuclear weapons to launch an attack on the South and “communize” the peninsula.
Lee in last Friday’s parliamentary hearing said Seoul should seek longer-range missiles to deter threats from its neighbor.
“As North Korea is threatening us with various missiles such as Rodongs and Scuds, we also need to upgrade our missile capability,” Lee said. “We will study, over the long-term, ways to bolster missile capability while taking into account our security needs.”
Under an agreement with the US, which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, Seoul restricts its missiles to a maximum range of 300km.
There have been calls to end the pact since North Korea launched a long-range rocket in April and staged its second nuclear test in May.
But in July, General Walter Sharp, commander of US forces in South Korea, said he saw no immediate need for South Korea to develop longer-range missiles.
The North has about 600 Scud missiles capable of hitting targets in South Korea, and possibly also of reaching Japanese territory in some cases.
There are another 200 Rodong-1 missiles that could reach Tokyo.
In addition, the North has three times test-launched long-range Taepodong missiles, most recently in April.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 Korean War ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.
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