U.S. has plan to hit WMD in North
US nuclear submarine
The Obama administration has drafted an operation plan that states it would hit North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction using nuclear or conventional weapons, according to documents obtained by the JoongAng Ilbo.
Oplan 8010-08, drafted by the United States Strategic Command (Stracom) in January 2009, deserves attention in South Korea because it is linked with a nuclear umbrella the U.S. has promised to provide to South Korea.
South Korea and the U.S. plan to have their first bilateral talks next month to discuss detailed measures about extended deterrence, including the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
According to information the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) unveiled in February of last year, Oplan 8010-08 pinpointed North Korea as well as Russia, China, Iran and Syria as potential adversaries for the U.S. - and the countries that could be a target of U.S. nuclear or conventional weapons.
Stracom, also the operator of the plan, made it clear that the North was a target country by putting the photo of a Taepodong-1, an intermediate-range ballistic missile the North fired in 1998, in its first-class classified document drafted in 2003.
Information from the FAS showed that the major weapons systems to be employed under Oplan 8010-08 included joint direct attack munitions (JDAM), bunker buster bombs as well as submarine-launched ballistic missiles and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Those weapons would be fired from platforms such as the B-2 Spirit, or stealth bomber; the B-52 Stratofortress, a long-range, strategic heavy bomber; trident submarines; and the F-22 Raptor fighters, the information showed.
Hans Kristensen, nuclear information director of FAS, quoted an unnamed Stracom official saying that around 30 percent of the targets under Oplan 8010-08 will be dealt with by conventional weapons.
Oplan 8010-08 mentioned the leadership of an adversary country - as well as the country’s infrastructure for manufacturing weapons of mass destruction and for supporting a war and its military - as targets, hinting that replacement of a regime, not just the destruction of weapons or infrastructure, is on the U.S.’s mind.
Indeed, Obama did not exclude a pre-emptive nuclear attack against North Korea and Iran in a new Nuclear Posture Review announced last April. The review provides guidelines for U.S. nuclear tactics to be implemented over the next years.
The finding came as South Korea and the U.S. are preparing for the first meeting of the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee, whose formation was agreed upon last October.
In the meeting, slated for next month in the U.S., the two are expected to discuss measures to boost the nuclear deterrence Washington provides to protect Seoul amid high tensions with North Korea.
The U.S. has provided nuclear deterrence for South Korea since South Korea abandoned a plan to develop nuclear weapons on its own in the 1970s.
The U.S. has reiterated its pledge of nuclear deterrence through the annual Security Consultative Meeting between the two countries.
Observers in South Korea are concerned that the U.S. will require South Korea to do something in return for enhancing its nuclear deterrence.
Washington may require Seoul to join its missile defense system, citing recent satellite images that the North is completing a new intercontinental ballistic missile base.(JoongAng)
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