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U.S. WMD unit participating in joint drill with S. Korea: Sharp
SEOUL, March 11 (Yonhap) -- U.S. personnel specialized in removing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are participating in this year's joint military exercise with South Korea and would "naturally" be mobilized in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula, the top U.S. commander here said Thursday.
South Korea and the U.S. on Monday began their annual joint military drill, Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, which North Korea lambastes as a prelude to war. The WMD team from the U.S. is said to have participated in the exercise last year as well.
"We do bring from the United States some unique expertise in our task force elimination that focuses very much on this specific task," Gen. Walter Sharp, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said at a press conference timed with the exercise.
"They are here for this exercise and if we ever went to war, they would naturally come also."
North Korea has conducted two known nuclear tests, in 2006 and last year. Although their success is disputed, nuclear experts believe the communist state's nuclear stock and technology are advancing.
"We watch very closely what North Korea is saying, doing and developing, and we adjust our war plans based upon that," Sharp said. "We adjust our exercises based on how we think it would attack."
The North's WMD threat is a "shared responsibility" between South Korea and the U.S., he said, with the countries working together "in exercises from day to day."
"What we are training for is all the threats that North Korea can throw at us," Sharp said.
The joint exercise, which ends March 18, brings about 18,000 U.S. troops from bases here and abroad and mobilizes more than 20,000 South Korean troops.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea, which is technically still at war with the South as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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