No Weakening of War Deterrent

The U.S. Department of Defense has emphasized the fact that sending the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division of U.S. forces in Korea to Iraq is being carried out in relation to the range and logic of the U.S. military’s global reorganization program.

In order to do this, the Department has disclosed that it has negotiated the general reorganization program with Korea and Japan for more than one year through official formalities, making it clear that the Future Alliance Conference with Korea was designed as a process of prior consultation of the program.

It has been assessed that the U.S. particularly focused on this point because they considered the possibility that Korea may misunderstand the decision of sending U.S. forces in Korea to Iraq.

--Background on the selection of the 2nd Infantry Division for duty in Iraq

At the explanatory presentation carried out today by a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense, Navy Major Flex Plexico pointed out that the subsidiary brigades of the 2nd Infantry Division of the U.S. army in Korea are well disciplined and highly prepared for any contingency, and they finally selected a second brigadier general among them.

He explained that it is also designed to allow the second brigadier general to experience the Iraqi situation as much as possible because the second brigadier has gotten no battle experience in Iraq or Afghanistan so far.

As for the scale of dispatch, he explained that it would be up to approximately 3,600, and that the finalized amount of soldiers can be adjusted under a range of 200.

--Countermeasures to prevent any weakening of U.S. forces in Korea

In relation to the possibility of a weakening of U.S. forces’ war deterrent ability in Korea, the spokesperson for the Department of Defense stated that “it will never fall back,” based on the U.S. statement issued in June, 2003 that it would invest an additional 11 billion dollars in Korea for the upcoming three to four years.

He explained that the U.S. will dispatch a Patriot Missile brigade (PAC-Ⅲ) and a Stryker-equipped battalion to Korea, and organize a several billion dollar C4I system (Command and Control, Communication, Computer, and Informational technology system) which is already partly in progress.

As for whether or not the 2nd Brigade will bring its M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks and M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles with them to Iraq, which they are currently using in Korea, has not been decided yet.

--Will they return to Korea or not?

The spokesperson has reiterated his remark, “It has not been decided yet,” toward repeated questions from reporters as to whether the 2nd Brigade would return to Korea, expressing that the possibility is low or none at all.

He disclosed that “whether the troops return to Korea or not will be decided during their mission in Iraq. Whether supplemental forces will be sent to Korea or not has also not been decided yet.”

He added that “I don’t want to predict the situation in the future. If additional needs for war deterrent were to come up, we will reinforce our military capacity in Korea.”

Soon-Taek Kwon maypole@donga.com