U.S. commander urges N. Korea to return to talks to discuss nuclear

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES with comments, ADDS background throughout;
RESTRUCTURES; TRIMS)
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- The top U.S. commander in South Korea said Monday North
Korea should first return to dialogue if it hopes to feel safe from what it
claims to be the ever-present U.S. nuclear threat on the divided peninsula.
The comments by Gen. Walter Sharp of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command
come amid a standoff in six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear
weapons programs.
The North rejected a U.S. proposal aimed at gaining access to its nuclear
activities, demanding that the U.S. also verify it has no nuclear weapons hidden
in South Korea.
"I think the answer to that will come out when North Korea finally agrees to sit
down and discuss how we're going to go through with a verification regime," he
said. "We, the United States, and the other countries of the six-party talks look
forward to that day so that we can work these details out."
The talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and host
China. Washington has maintained its side of verification on the Korean Peninsula
was done in the early 1990's.
"The demand is for North Korea to verify that they do not have nuclear weapons
and to denuclearize," Sharp told a group of foreign news media journalists in
Seoul.
Stressing South Korea possesses no nuclear arms, the head of the U.S. Forces
Korea said North Korea "successfully did a nuclear test in 2006."
"They have proclaimed the desire for nuclear capability," he said, adding South
Korea and the U.S. "have to be prepared for that possibility."
North Korea has raised regional tensions recently as outside officials say the
communist state could be preparing to test-fire its longest-range missile, the
Taepodong-2.
Sharp said a test-launch would "show that the leadership within North Korea does
not understand what it needs to be a responsible nation."
Citing a 2006 U.N. resolution warning North Korea not to advance missile
development, Sharp said U.S.-South Korean armed forces have prepared a long list
of plans for any North Korean contingency.
"We have plans that take a look at both an all-out attack from North Korea and
instability in North Korea," he said, adding that "instability going from the
entire range of humanitarian disaster and all the way up to major civil war and
potential loose nuclear weapons."
"We hope we never have to execute those, but we're prepared for the full range of
operations," he said, declining to disclose specifics because the information is
classified. He added he did not detect any unusual military movements in North
Korea recently.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against
North Korea -- a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a ceasefire
rather than a peace treaty.
Sharp said North Korea's long- and short-range artillery along the military
demarcation line pose as great a threat as its missiles, but voiced confidence
his forces are "properly positioned" to react.
"We work very hard to be able to very rapidly take both the long-range, the
short-range, all of the missile systems and artillery to be able to destroy them
if we were ready to go to war," he said.
The allies enjoy "excellent radar positions" and will retaliate "with artillery
going back or with our air forces ganged" to "find and kill" targets, he said.
But Sharp cautioned damage to the South Korean capital will be inevitable.
"There still will be destruction in Seoul. There's no doubt about it," he said,
arguing any attempt for him to estimate civilian casualties would produce figures
"exactly wrong."
About 10 million people reside in Seoul, and North Korea in the past has
threatened to turn the city into "a sea of fire" to raise tension.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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