U.S. to Deploy High-Tech Precision-Guided Direct Attack Missiles Near DMZ

The U.S. Forces Korea will introduce the precision-guidance kit known as JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) in order to resolve the threat of North Korean long-range fire along the Armistice Line, announced General Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

At a September 23 hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services regarding the Global Defense Posture Review, Gen. Myers explained, “The JDAM is released from the air using a global positioning device,” and stated that it can debilitate the North Korean military’s tactic of attacking first with long-range guns, then charging at their enemy.

North Korea has over 100,000 long-range guns—field artillery units capable of targeting Seoul—positioned along the Armistice Line. Experts have been speculating that these guns will be capable of inflicting massive damage to the ROK armed forces and the USFK during the opening stages of battle.

Commander Leon LaPorte of the USFK, who also attended the hearing, added that when the USFK is relocated to the south of the Han River, it will be able to mobilize in any direction as required without being locked down by the North’s long-range guns.

Admiral Fargo, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said that the two US bases south of the Han River will function as a lever in countering and deterring war “on the Korean Peninsula and in its surrounding areas,” intimating that the USFK’s future field of activity will exceed the Peninsula itself.

Admiral Fargo also revealed that additional carrier air groups would be deployed in the Pacific area as part of the U.S.’s Global Defense Posture, reported Japan’s Kyodo News.

Currently deployed in the Asia-Pacific region is Carrier Air Wing Five with the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, which operates out of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The deployment of additional air groups will greatly enhance the U.S.’s force projection capability in the region.

Won-Jae Park Seung-Ryun Kim parkwj@donga.com srkim@donga.com