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(Yonhap Interview) U.S. commander raps N. Korean leader over nuclear weapons
By Lee Youkyung, Sam Kim
SEOUL, May 27 (Yonhap) -- The commander of the U.S. forces in South Korea has warned North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to "stop wasting time" by using nuclear tests to extract concessions from the international community.
Gen. Walter Sharp also said in an exclusive interview with Yonhap News Agency that Kim is pushing for his sole survival at the expense of his people while developing weapons that "are not necessary."
North Korea said Monday it conducted its second nuclear test, declaring a "success" for the enhancement of its nuclear arsenal.
The announcement was followed by the test-firing of a series of short-range missiles on the east coast, while the communist state continues threatening to test a long-range ballistic missile.
"What we call upon is Kim Jong-il to stop wasting his time with threats like this and nuclear tests," Sharp said in the interview held on Friday before the nuclear detonation in North Korea.
"It is reducing any hope for him that he might have an international influence," said Sharp, who oversees 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea.
North Korea conducted its first atomic test in October 2006, a few months after it launched a Taepodong-2 missile theoretically capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii.
On April 5 this year, North Korea went ahead with the launch of a long-range rocket, which the U.S. and its allies say was really a revamped Taepodong-2.
Pyongyang claims it orbited a scientific satellite with the three-stage rocket called "Unha-2," which the U.S. and its allies say plunged into the Pacific Ocean without putting anything into space.
Kim Jong-il "did not do what he wanted to, which he said was to put a satellite in space. He did not accomplish that," Sharp said. "But by the same token, it was more successful than the 2006 launch."
The rocket is estimated to have traveled over 3,000 kilometers, flying over Japan and representing a jump in the North's technology, considering the 2006 launch fizzled shortly after takeoff.
Deploring the investments North Korea is believed to have made in expanding its arsenal, Sharp lashed out at Kim over his alleged dereliction of duty as a leader.
"What is really bad about the whole situation is the amount of money he's pouring into all of these different military means that are not necessary," he said.
"That money is not going to the people who are in such hard economic standing, (having) a hard time getting food," Sharp said. "He's a leader that, I think, just cares for himself, making sure that he survives, and he doesn't care that much about his people."
Sharp did not provide figures, but a prominent South Korean analyst said last month that North Korea may have spent nearly US$500 million to build its latest long-range rocket.
Nam Sung-wook, who heads a think tank under the National Intelligence Service, based his estimate on remarks made by Kim during his 2000 summit with then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
The North Korean leader told South Korean officials then that his regime spent between $200 million and $300 million to launch its "Unha-1" rocket in 1998, according to Nam.
North Korea has relied on international aid for a decade to feed its population of 23 million. Aid from South Korea dried up after President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul last year with a pledge to tie reconciliation to North Korean efforts to denuclearize.
"They (North Korea) want more world attention ... to be able to try to get concessions, and to get food, and money, all of that," Sharp said, arguing threats are "not the way to go about it."
South Korea and the U.S. operate a war plan, OPLAN 5027, under which nearly 700,000 American troops are to be dispatched to the Korean Peninsula should a full-fledged conflict arise.
The allies -- technically at war with Pyongyang as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce and not a ceasefire -- are pushing to adopt a new plan this summer that better accounts for instability and nuclear warfare involving North Korea.
"We're developing a plan to include what forces will be part of that plan that both countries will agree to," Sharp said, emphasizing that the U.S. will retain its nuclear umbrella over South Korea.
"How quickly we get our forces here will not change from what it is today," he said. Sharp took over command of the U.S. Forces Korea a year ago.
South Korea is set to get wartime operational control of its 655,000 troops back from the U.S. in April 2012. Control was relinquished to the U.S.-led U.N. command at the onset of the Korean War. Peacetime control was returned in 1994.
"What OPCON transition really means is that there is one commander," he said, alluding to the chairman of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. "There is one plan. It's not two plans."
Sharp said the U.S. will maintain its military presence in South Korea "for the foreseeable future" and voiced hope that the alliance will expand through cooperation outside the peninsula.
"As far as Afghanistan specifically, the Republic of Korea is ... working very closely with our forces in Afghanistan, with NATO forces that are there in order to be able to determine what is the best contribution, whether it's money, forces, or materials," he said.
South Korea withdrew a 200-strong contingent of military medics and engineers from Afghanistan in 2007, ending several years of deployment under a U.S.-led campaign against Taliban forces.
In a new effort to assist the war-torn country, South Korea announced this month it will dole out about $20 million to build a hospital and a job training facility there.
Declining to discuss media speculation that Washington had asked Seoul to re-deploy troops by saying he is "not an expert" on the issue, Sharp praised South Korea for its willingness to reinforce U.S. activities in Afghanistan.
"I applaud what (South) Korea is doing ... to see how they can help this country, Afghanistan," he said.
Sharp warned against the North Korean rocket launch being portrayed as an opportunity for South Korea to revise its 2001 agreement with the U.S. on limiting its missile development.
Talk of South Korea exiting a voluntary international ban on long-range missile development spiked after North Korea demonstrated its ability to fire a rocket that can fly thousands of kilometers.
"South Korea has no desire to hit Hawaii and has no desire to hit the western part of the United States," Sharp said, downplaying the argument for South Korean development of a missile with a range of over 300 kilometers.
"The ability of how far North Korea wants to ... be able to shoot a missile, it really has no relation to how far South Korea needs to be able to launch a missile," he said.
ylee@yna.co.kr
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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