White Paper:  In case of war, U.S.
could send 690,000 to S. Korea

By Jim Lea
Osan bureau chief

The United States is prepared to send 690,000 troops to South Korea in event of war with North Korea, according to a South Korean defense ministry White Paper issued Monday.

The document, issued annually by the defense ministry to detail South Korea’s defense policy and compare military forces of the two Koreas, said there has been no fundamental change in Pyong-yang’s long-held aim of communizing the South.

North Korea remains the South’s most potent military threat in spite of gradually warming relations, the paper stated.

To combat the threat, the report said, the United States is prepared to deploy some 690,000 troops — as well as 160 ships and 1,600 aircraft. The figure is a 10 percent increase from years past, a reflection of the U.S. military’s "win-win strategy aimed at being able to fight two wars simultaneously on two fronts," the paper said.

"This shows a strong U.S. determination to guard the Korean Peninsula," the report said.

The South has "maintained the status quo" in its forces, the report said. South Korea has a standing army of about 650,000 and is supported in country by 37,000 American troops.

In contrast, some 60 North Korean divisions have been deployed south of a line stretching from Pyongyang near the west coast to Wonsan on the east coast, the paper said. Pyong-yang is continuing to deploy more artillery pieces that bring Seoul within range. It also has added about 20 military aircraft to its inventory in the past year, giving it now some 790 fighter planes.

The North Korean navy also has deployed surface ships and more than 50 submarines to forward bases near the DMZ, the report said.

Since the late 1990s, Pyong-yang has added four combat divisions, giving it a total of 67. It has increased its number of artillery pieces by 500, giving it 12,500, and has increased its reserve forces by 30,000 to a total 7.5 million men. The North has more than 1 million troops on active duty.

Even though there has been some progress made in smoothing inter-Korean relations this year, Pyongyang still has shown little inclination to work out military confidence-building measures with the South, the report said.

That means the South Korean military must be prepared to deal with any contingency, and the U.S.-South Korean military alliance must remain strong even in the face of improvements in other areas of the inter-Korean relationship, the report said.

Bae Gi-chul contributed to this report.