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Military review details N. Korean threats
Source: Agencies |
December 31, 2010, Friday
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NORTH Korea has faster, more powerful tanks prowling the world's most heavily armed border and 200,000 special forces poised to carry out assassinations and cause havoc in South Korea, a major military review said yesterday.
Seoul's Defense Ministry report, released every two years, signals that North Korea's military has expanded. It comes as South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's administration scrambles to respond to criticism that it was unprepared for a November 23 North Korean artillery attack on an island that killed four people.
That attack, along with an alleged North Korean torpedoing of a warship in March, has prompted South Korea to define North Korea in the defense document as its "enemy," a stronger description than in 2008 when North Korea was only called a "direct and serious threat."
South Korean defense documents stopped referring to North Korea as "the main enemy" - a constant subject of North Korean criticism - in 2004 amid then-warming ties.
North Korea's state media angrily reacted to the new reference later yesterday, calling it a "grave provocation" that could trigger war.
The new document said North Korea intends to rely on its nuclear program, special forces, long-range artillery, submarines and cyber warfare forces as a counterweight to South Korea's high-tech conventional military.
North Korea has 200,000 special operations forces, the report said, an increase from 180,000 in the ministry's last assessment in 2008. Those forces are aimed at carrying out assassinations and infiltrating and disrupting key facilities in South Korea, it said.
North Korea's army deploys many of its 13,600 long-range artillery guns along the Demilitarized Zone, ready to launch surprise artillery barrages on Seoul and its adjacent areas, the document said. Seoul is only about 50 kilometers from the border.
The country also has developed a new battle tank with better firepower and mobility than previous ones, and the modern tanks have been deployed near the border, it said.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il has made a priority of trying to build military power superior to the South's, and its forces "are posing a serious threat to South Korea's military," the document said.
However, analysts said it is unlikely that North Korea would launch an all-out war against South Korea.
Seoul's Defense Ministry report, released every two years, signals that North Korea's military has expanded. It comes as South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's administration scrambles to respond to criticism that it was unprepared for a November 23 North Korean artillery attack on an island that killed four people.
That attack, along with an alleged North Korean torpedoing of a warship in March, has prompted South Korea to define North Korea in the defense document as its "enemy," a stronger description than in 2008 when North Korea was only called a "direct and serious threat."
South Korean defense documents stopped referring to North Korea as "the main enemy" - a constant subject of North Korean criticism - in 2004 amid then-warming ties.
North Korea's state media angrily reacted to the new reference later yesterday, calling it a "grave provocation" that could trigger war.
The new document said North Korea intends to rely on its nuclear program, special forces, long-range artillery, submarines and cyber warfare forces as a counterweight to South Korea's high-tech conventional military.
North Korea has 200,000 special operations forces, the report said, an increase from 180,000 in the ministry's last assessment in 2008. Those forces are aimed at carrying out assassinations and infiltrating and disrupting key facilities in South Korea, it said.
North Korea's army deploys many of its 13,600 long-range artillery guns along the Demilitarized Zone, ready to launch surprise artillery barrages on Seoul and its adjacent areas, the document said. Seoul is only about 50 kilometers from the border.
The country also has developed a new battle tank with better firepower and mobility than previous ones, and the modern tanks have been deployed near the border, it said.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il has made a priority of trying to build military power superior to the South's, and its forces "are posing a serious threat to South Korea's military," the document said.
However, analysts said it is unlikely that North Korea would launch an all-out war against South Korea.
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