Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung and his U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld will meet on the sidelines of the Asia Security Conference in Singapore on Saturday afternoon to coordinate opinions about progress.
Meanwhile, North Korea has some 10 more submarines than South Korean armed forces believed. Its artillery corps have increased to two. “The Military Balance 2006” a report which compares military capabilities around the world, published by the U.K. International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) estimates that the North has 88 submarines, as against the 70 or so Korea’s Defense White Paper last year indicated.
A new combined command structure is being considered where the nation’s armed forces take charge of ground operations and the U.S. Forces Korea of aerial and maritime operations in an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, source said. Under the existing command structure, the commander of Combined Forces Command (CFC) under U.S. control exercises wartime operational control on all ground, maritime and aerial operations. The idea is to strengthen the role of Korea’s armed forces before full wartime operational is returned.
“Research is being conducted from a variety of viewpoints about how to change the roles played by Korea and U.S. forces to achieve the most effective operational command in the Korean Peninsula theater,” a military official said Friday. “Command structures being discussed in the Security Policy Initiative meetings between the two allies include one where the nation’s armed forces control combined ground troops and the USFK controls or assists maritime and aerial forces.”
Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung and his U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld will meet on the sidelines of the Asia Security Conference in Singapore on Saturday afternoon to coordinate opinions about progress.
Meanwhile, North Korea has some 10 more submarines than South Korean armed forces believed. Its artillery corps have increased to two. “The Military Balance 2006” a report which compares military capabilities around the world, published by the U.K. International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) estimates that the North has 88 submarines, as against the 70 or so Korea’s Defense White Paper last year indicated.
The IISS report says North Korea possesses 22 1,800-ton Romio class subs produced by the former Soviet Union, 21 300-ton Shark class subs of the kind that infiltrated waters off Gangneung in 1996, and subs smaller than 200-tons. In addition, the North owns several Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) developed in the former Soviet Union, the report says.
