Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Examiner
April 25, 2007
By Rowan Scarborough, National Security Correspondent
WASHINGTON - North Korea’s military is no longer capable of sustaining an invasion of South Korea because of the communist nation’s anemic economy, the top U.S. commander in Korea said Tuesday.
But Army Gen. B. B. Bell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that U.S. ground forces positioned to blunt a North Korea invasion are also suffering combat readiness problems because the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have drained resources.
Bell said the North’s deteriorating economy can no longer support its huge army at a high readiness level, despite the “military first” policy of leader Kim Jong Il.
“It is doubtful that the North Korean military in its current state could sustain offensive operations against the South,” the four-star general said.
Concerning his own 28,000 U.S. troops, he testified he was “concerned about U.S. ground force readiness,” but said air and naval power should pick up the slack. He is “quite confident we can execute our ‘op’ plan.”
Pre-positioned stocks of equipment and ammunition in Guam have been diverted to Iraq, he said.
The Bush administration is now engaged in extensive regional negotiations to convince Kim’s hard-line regime to give up what the United States believes is a nuclear arsenal of up to six warheads.
The United States says the North has agreed to abandon nuclear weapons development, but has balked at the agreement’s first step by missing an April 14 deadline to shut down the plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor.
“I think we should give them a little longer,” Bell said. “I would say we have at least a 50-50 chance of this working.”
If the North backs out, it is likely it will test a second nuclear device as it did last year, and will become a “moderate” nuclear power by 2010.
Adm. Timothy Keating, who heads U.S. Pacific Command, told the committee that the vast majority of Muslims in such countries as Malaysia and Indonesia reject the call for violence from Osama bin Laden and other radical Islamists. But there is concern that Asians interpret the “war on terror” as a campaign against Islam, he said.
April 25, 2007
By Rowan Scarborough, National Security Correspondent
WASHINGTON - North Korea’s military is no longer capable of sustaining an invasion of South Korea because of the communist nation’s anemic economy, the top U.S. commander in Korea said Tuesday.
But Army Gen. B. B. Bell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that U.S. ground forces positioned to blunt a North Korea invasion are also suffering combat readiness problems because the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have drained resources.
Bell said the North’s deteriorating economy can no longer support its huge army at a high readiness level, despite the “military first” policy of leader Kim Jong Il.
“It is doubtful that the North Korean military in its current state could sustain offensive operations against the South,” the four-star general said.
Concerning his own 28,000 U.S. troops, he testified he was “concerned about U.S. ground force readiness,” but said air and naval power should pick up the slack. He is “quite confident we can execute our ‘op’ plan.”
Pre-positioned stocks of equipment and ammunition in Guam have been diverted to Iraq, he said.
The Bush administration is now engaged in extensive regional negotiations to convince Kim’s hard-line regime to give up what the United States believes is a nuclear arsenal of up to six warheads.
The United States says the North has agreed to abandon nuclear weapons development, but has balked at the agreement’s first step by missing an April 14 deadline to shut down the plutonium-producing Yongbyon reactor.
“I think we should give them a little longer,” Bell said. “I would say we have at least a 50-50 chance of this working.”
If the North backs out, it is likely it will test a second nuclear device as it did last year, and will become a “moderate” nuclear power by 2010.
Adm. Timothy Keating, who heads U.S. Pacific Command, told the committee that the vast majority of Muslims in such countries as Malaysia and Indonesia reject the call for violence from Osama bin Laden and other radical Islamists. But there is concern that Asians interpret the “war on terror” as a campaign against Islam, he said.