US, ROk work on war plan

The United States and South Korea are drawing up a new contingency plan for a war in the Korean peninsula as tensions mount over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, a newspaper here said Friday.

The defense ministry, however, dismissed the report as speculation and said the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command was merely engaging in routine review of existing defense planning.

The JoongAng daily quoted government sources as saying the combined forces were working on plans to beef up military defensive capability, especially around Seoul, just 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the Demilitarized Zone, the world's most heavily fortified border.

It quoted an unidentified high-ranking South Korean official as saying General Lee Nam-Shin, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Leon LaPorte, commander of the US troops stationed here, had agreed to produce a new plan by the end of July.

LaPorte commands 37,000 US troops and under the US-South Korean military alliance, would have commanding rights over the combined forces including the South Korean military in times of war.

A spokesman of the defense ministry here said the combined forces command was merely "updating existing war plans."

However, the conservative JoongAng said a new plan was likely to include the provision to the military of more multiple rocket launchers, air-to-surface missiles and anti-artillery radar systems and other sophisticated weapons, the daily said.

South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jun told members of parliament on Thursday that a war on the Korean peninsula could break out if the United States launched a strike at the North's nuclear facilities.

"Should the United States strike the North, a war would become inevitable... The military is working on plans to prepare the highest level of defense posture... for this worst case scenario," a defense ministry official quoted Lee as saying.

The newspaper said US air strikes at the North Korean nuclear facilities would probably trigger a cross-border attack by the North's troops on the South, which would be led by a barrage from 11,000 artillery pieces.

Seoul would be especially vulnerable to these artillery pieces which are deployed close to the border, the paper said.

Meanwhile, North Korea will respond to diplomatic pressure and abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions as it seeks to open up to the outside world, South Korean president-elect Roh Moo-Hyun said Friday as a top Russian envoy headed for Pyongyang.

Roh, who takes office on February 25, said fears that unpredictable North Korea would resort to armed force in its standoff with the world community over it nuclear weapons were misplaced.