U.S. Pacific commander visits S. Korea as Clinton steps up warning against N. Korea

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) -- The commander of U.S. forces in Asia and the Pacific
met with South Korea's defense minister on Friday as U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton joined her counterpart here separately to warn North Korea to
stop raising tensions.
"It is helpful for us to be here as Secretary Clinton's here," Navy Adm. Timothy
Keating told South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee. "It's very clear: our
mutual focus, our mutual interests."
Lee thanked Keating for making a visit at a time when North Korea is apparently
moving to test-fire a long-range missile and warning of an armed clash near a
western sea border with South Korea.
"North Korea is escalating tensions and taking various measures" to threaten
South Korea, Lee said, speaking through an English interpreter.
The meeting, also attended by Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the Combined Forces
Command in Seoul and the South Korean chairman of general staff, Kim Tae-young,
went mostly behind closed doors.
South Korean officials at the Ministry of National Defense said the visit by
Keating was part of his broader Asian swing aimed at examining and discussing the
role of U.S. troops in the region.
About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against
North Korea -- a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce rather
than a peace treaty.
Keating, who controls the U.S. Pacific Command, said in December that he believes
North Korea possesses intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the
western U.S., including Hawaii.
North Korea test-fired a Taepodong-2 missile which crashed soon after takeoff in
July 2006. The communist country is believed to be preparing another test on its
east coast, outside officials say.
Clinton, visiting Seoul as part of her four-nation Asian trip, reaffirmed at a
press conference that a North Korean missile test would be "unhelpful" in moving
forward six-nation talks aimed at compensating Pyongyang for its nuclear
dismantlement.
She visited the U.S.-led Combined Forces Command before meeting with South Korean
Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan. She called on Pyongyang to return to the talks
that also include Russia, Japan and China.
North Korea, which has a standing army of some 1.2 million troops, has recently
ratcheted up its rhetoric against South Korea and its conservative leader, Lee
Myung-bak.
The country has scrapped all cross-border military agreements and threatened
violence along a Yellow Sea border that it claims should be drawn further south.
The North conducted its first known atomic test in 2006 but is believed to lack
the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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