YONHAP NEWS

(2nd LD) U.S. defense chief due in Seoul for annual security meeting: Pentagon

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will travel to South Korea next week to meet with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young for an annual security meeting, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

   "In the wake of North Korea's recent missile launches, the secretary will reinforce America's commitment to the alliance and South Korea's defense," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell in a daily news briefing.

   The chief U.S. defense official will stay in Seoul Oct. 21-22 as part of his weeklong trip to Asia, which begins Monday, and will co-chair the 41st annual Security Consultative Meeting, the spokesman said.

   Gates' trip starts in Honolulu Monday when he attends a change-of-command ceremony, Morrell said. Admiral Robert Willard will replace Admiral Timothy Keating as commander of the U.S. Pacific Command.

   The U.S. defense chief will then fly to Tokyo "for his first visit with the newly elected Japanese government," the spokesman said. "The secretary will have meetings with the prime minister, as well as the ministers of defense and foreign affairs, during which they will discuss the security of the region and the ongoing transformation of the U.S.-Japan alliance."

   On the fourth and last leg, the defense secretary will travel to Bratislava, Slovakia, for a NATO defense ministerial meeting "that will likely focus primarily on the alliance's mission in Afghanistan," Morrell said.

   The annual SCM comes amid mixed signals from North Korea, which launched five short-range missiles Monday amid reports that its leader, Kim Jong-il, expressed intentions to return to the six-party talks next week when he met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Pyongyang.

   Kim then pegged the revival of the multilateral negotiations on the outcome of bilateral talks with the U.S.

   Morrell described the North's missile launches as "unhelpful and potentially destabilizing, and are frowned upon by us and others in the region," adding that Gates will discuss the issue with his South Korean counterpart in Seoul.

   North Korea has boycotted the six-party negotiations, citing U.N. sanctions for its nuclear and missile tests earlier this year.

   U.S. officials have said they are ready to have bilateral talks with North Korea only if they lead to the resumption of the six-party talks.

   Philip Crowley, assistant secretary of state for public affairs, told a separate news briefing that "we have not yet made a decision" on whether to accept the invitation North Korea extended to Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy.

   Washington is also considering an entry permit for Ri Gun, director general of the North American affairs bureau of North Korea's Foreign Ministry, who was invited to a seminar in San Diego Oct. 26-27 by the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue. Ri is deputy to North Korea's chief nuclear envoy, Kim Kye-gwan.

   Aside from the North Korean nuclear and missile threats, Gates and Kim Tae-young will also likely reaffirm their commitment to South Korea's retaking of the wartime command control of its troops as scheduled in 2012 despite concerns over a nuclear-armed North Korea.

   Gen. Walter Sharp, the commander of U.S. forces in Korea, reconfirmed that last week.

   "On the OPCON transfer, we are on track. We will be prepared for 17 April, 2012," Sharp said in a forum here. "By 2012, the Republic of Korea military leadership will be ready to take over."

   The U.S. currently has wartime operational control, known as OPCON, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, when the U.S. fought with South Korea against the North. The U.S. South Korea got back the peacetime control of its forces in 1994.

   Concerns have risen in South Korea after North Korea's second nuclear test in May, after one in 2006, that the OPCON transfer will create a gap in the joint defense of South Korea. North Korea is believed to have several nuclear warheads and long-range missiles capable of reaching part of the U.S.

   U.S. President Barack Obama provided a written guarantee of a nuclear umbrella for South Korea after he met with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in June.

   "We will maintain a robust defense posture, backed by allied capabilities which support both nations' security interests," a joint statement issued after the summit said. "The continuing commitment of extended deterrence, including the U.S. nuclear umbrella, reinforces this assurance."

   Also high on the agenda at the SCA will likely be the possibility of South Korea sending its troops to Afghanistan as the Obama administration seeks support from its allies to help stabilize the war-torn Central Asian country.

   In Washington last week, South Korean Ambassador Han Duck-soo said, "We've not yet received any such request from the U.S. government and we do not expect such a request will be made in the summit between leaders of the two countries next month."

   Han said that South Korea will make its own decision "regardless of a U.S. position, taking into consideration the needs there, related circumstances and our resources available in a comprehensive manner."

   Some analysts, however, said Gates may raise the issue in preparation for Obama's summit with Lee Myung-bak in Seoul in mid-November.

   "We do not preclude the possibility of Secretary Gates raising the issue, though on an unofficial manner," a source said.

   Obama is visiting Seoul in November on the last leg of a four-nation Asian tour that also brings him to Tokyo, Singapore and Beijing.

   The U.S. president is being pressured by the U.S. military to dispatch 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, where alleged fraud in the recent election of U.S-backed President Hamid Karzai has helped strengthen the Taliban insurgency.

   About 68,000 American troops are currently deployed in Afghanistan, which some fear might turn out to be another quagmire for the U.S. like the Vietnam War.

   South Korea withdrew more than 200 military medics and engineers from Afghanistan in 2007 after dozens of South Korean Christian missionaries were held captive. Two of them were killed and the rest released after the Seoul government pledged to withdraw the troops by the end of that year.

   South Korea currently maintains scores of civilian medical staff at a U.S. base in Afghanistan and plans to increase the number to 85 by year's end.

   hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)