YONHAP NEWS

(2nd LD) U.S. not to allow enhanced missile capability for S. Korea: Gen. Sharp

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Yonhap) -- The United States has no immediate plans to allow South Korea longer-range missiles to counter North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, the commander of U.S. troops in South Korea said Tuesday.

The remarks by Gen. Walter Sharp come amid reports that South Korea will soon call on the U.S. to begin talks on improving South Korea's missile capability, which is constrained to 300 kilometers in range and 500 kilograms in payload under a 2001 agreement.

Gen. Walter Sharp

Until 2001, South Korea was limited to 180 kilometers in missile range under an agreement with the U.S., which feared an arms race between the Cold War archrivals on the Korean Peninsula.

   "You'll need to direct that towards the State Department and, you know, again, there's been no request to do that and I really don't see a need for that right now," Sharp said in a video-linked news conference from New York. He was responding to the question if the issue will be discussed at an upcoming Security Consultative Meeting between defense ministers of the sides in October.

   Sharp also said that the combined forces of South Korea and the U.S. are prepared for any attack from North Korea and urged the North to return to the six-way talks on ending its nuclear ambitions.

   "I can assure you that the alliance is fully prepared to respond to any situation as we continue to monitor the activity in the region," he said. The U.S. maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea as a legacy of the Korean War, which ended in 1953 in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

   "We're prepared for any sort of military attack … from ballistic missiles, from any sort of missiles all the way up to a full range of combat," he said.
Sharp's remarks come amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea tested a nuclear bomb in May, its second detonation, and has launched a series of dummy missiles.

   The provocations led the U.N. Security Council to ban the North from conducting any further nuclear and ballistic missile tests and to impose financial sanctions and an arms embargo. A Security Council resolution allows cargo interdiction on the high seas to detect weapons trafficking.

   Sharp urged North Korea to return to the six-party talks and "take a new path" to care for its people and stop threatening the international community.

   "We call upon Kim Jong-Il to go back to what he agreed to at one time through the six-party talks, (that is) to stop his nuclear program and in fact to start denuclearizing it," he said.

   Pyongyang has been boycotting the multilateral talks and vowed to expand its nuclear arsenal in protest of international condemnation of its nuclear and missile tests.

   Sharp also said that the U.S. military computer system has not been damaged by the recent cyberattacks against scores of government Web sites in South Korea and the U.S.

   "We in the Department of Defense, our operations have not been affected by the cyberattacks," Sharp said. "Our networks, within our ability to be able to operate from a military perspective, have been protected and were not affected by those. We are on the U.S. military side working very hard to make sure that we have the proper defenses in place across all of our networks to be able to stop any sort of the viruses or any sort of the attacks, and we work on that on a daily basis."

   hdh@yna.co.kr
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