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April 3, 2008 By William C. Mann, Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- North Korea has 13,000 artillery systems and 800 missiles, and South Korea lacks anti-missile defenses adequate to counter them, senators were told Thursday.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Walter L. Sharp, nominated to take over the U.S. and U.N. military commands on the peninsula, said upgrades in the PAC-3 Patriot missile defense system have improved protection for critical U.S. facilities in South Korea.
"However, there is a significant shortage of PAC-3 missiles currently available on the peninsula to counter the North Korean missile threat," Sharp said.
The comments were written responses to questions members of the Senate Armed Services Committee had him answer before a hearing Thursday on his nomination to succeed Army Gen. B.B. Bell as chief of the U.N.Command, the combined U.S.-South Korea command and the U.S. forces in Korea.
Sharp, currently serving in the Pentagon as director of the Joint Staff, said North Korea's arsenal, "though aging and unsophisticated" by U.S. and South Korean standards, "still constitutes a substantial threat."
He said North Korea maintains 70 percent of its ground forces within 90 miles of the Demilitarized Zone that has separated the peninsula on the northeastern coast of Asia since the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace settlement, in 1953. The DMZ is 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of metropolitan Seoul, South Korea's bustling capital area of more than 20 million people.
North Korea has 250 long-range artillery systems capable of reaching the capital, Sharp said.
"North Korea still has the capacity to inflict major destruction and significant military and civilian casualties in South Korea with little to no warning," Sharp wrote.
On the missile defense question, Sharp wrote, "North Korea continues to build missiles of increasing range, lethality and accuracy, bolstering its current stockpile of 800 missiles for its defense and external sales."
In a flurry of missile testing in mid-2006, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in July that is said to have had the capability of reaching U.S. territory.
South Korea "does not currently possess a ballistic missile defense capability" that can join seamlessly with U.S. defensive missiles. Sharp wrote.
It is urgent that South Korea develop such a system, Sharp wrote and added: "South Korean military and civilian facilities are currently highly vulnerable to North Korean missile attacks."
April 3, 2008 By William C. Mann, Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- North Korea has 13,000 artillery systems and 800 missiles, and South Korea lacks anti-missile defenses adequate to counter them, senators were told Thursday.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Walter L. Sharp, nominated to take over the U.S. and U.N. military commands on the peninsula, said upgrades in the PAC-3 Patriot missile defense system have improved protection for critical U.S. facilities in South Korea.
"However, there is a significant shortage of PAC-3 missiles currently available on the peninsula to counter the North Korean missile threat," Sharp said.
The comments were written responses to questions members of the Senate Armed Services Committee had him answer before a hearing Thursday on his nomination to succeed Army Gen. B.B. Bell as chief of the U.N.Command, the combined U.S.-South Korea command and the U.S. forces in Korea.
Sharp, currently serving in the Pentagon as director of the Joint Staff, said North Korea's arsenal, "though aging and unsophisticated" by U.S. and South Korean standards, "still constitutes a substantial threat."
He said North Korea maintains 70 percent of its ground forces within 90 miles of the Demilitarized Zone that has separated the peninsula on the northeastern coast of Asia since the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace settlement, in 1953. The DMZ is 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of metropolitan Seoul, South Korea's bustling capital area of more than 20 million people.
North Korea has 250 long-range artillery systems capable of reaching the capital, Sharp said.
"North Korea still has the capacity to inflict major destruction and significant military and civilian casualties in South Korea with little to no warning," Sharp wrote.
On the missile defense question, Sharp wrote, "North Korea continues to build missiles of increasing range, lethality and accuracy, bolstering its current stockpile of 800 missiles for its defense and external sales."
In a flurry of missile testing in mid-2006, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in July that is said to have had the capability of reaching U.S. territory.
South Korea "does not currently possess a ballistic missile defense capability" that can join seamlessly with U.S. defensive missiles. Sharp wrote.
It is urgent that South Korea develop such a system, Sharp wrote and added: "South Korean military and civilian facilities are currently highly vulnerable to North Korean missile attacks."