U.S. ready for N. Korean threat: Gen. Sharp

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Yonhap) -- The commander of U.S. troops in South Korea said
Tuesday that the forces of South Korea and the U.S. are prepared for any attack
from North Korea.

Gen. Walter Sharp also urged the North to return to the six-way talks on ending
its nuclear ambitions.
"I am absolutely confident that the capabilities that we and the Republic of
Korea have are prepared for any threat," Sharp said in a video-linked news
conference from New York.
The U.S. maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea as a legacy of the Korean War,
which ended in 1953 in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Sharp's remarks come amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula. North
Korea tested a nuclear bomb in May, its second detonation, and has launched a
series of dummy missiles.
The provocations led the U.N. Security Council to ban the North from conducting
any further nuclear and ballistic missile tests and to impose financial sanctions
and an arms embargo. A Security Council resolution allows cargo interdiction on
the high seas to detect weapons trafficking.
Sharp urged Pyongyang to "take a new path" to care for its people and stop
threatening the international community.
The commander said that the U.S. military computer system has not been damaged by
the recent cyberattacks against scores of government Web sites in South Korea and
the U.S.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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