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            US Defense Official Sees North Korean Threats Backfiring

   by Steve Herman

   A top U.S. defense official is visiting South Korea, where he says
   North Korea's recent provocations are only further isolating Pyongyang
   from the rest of the world.
   Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Pyongyang's missile and
   nuclear tests, as well as recent threats to launch a nuclear strike and
   attack frontier islands in the South, are not going to soften attitudes
   abroad towards the reclusive and impoverished country.
   "If the North Koreans think this kind of thing is going to get them
   anywhere, they're mistaken. The only effect it's having is to bring
   upon North Korea the opprobrium [reproach] of the entire world," Carter
   said.
   In response, he added, the United States military is continuing to
   integrate operations with South Korean forces and adding ground-based
   interceptors to U.S. missile defenses in Alaska.
   China on Monday cautioned the United States to act prudently on
   boosting its anti-missile system. A spokesman for the foreign ministry
   in Beijing, Hong Lei, told reporters such plans, in response to North
   Korea's provocation, "will intensify antagonism and will not be
   beneficial to finding a solution for the problem." The spokesman said
   the situation is best addressed through diplomatic means.
   VOA asked Carter if South Korean government and defense officials he
   met Monday are alarmed by the recent North Korean rhetoric or do they
   view it as similar to Pyongyang's more typical bellicose rhetoric?
   "I found that my colleagues in the South Korean government shared our
   assessment," Carter said. "After all we have a common foundation of
   intelligence about North Korea and so we see things the same way."
   Joint military drills are underway on the peninsula (Foal Eagle and Key
   Resolve) involving thousands of members of forces from both the United
   States and South Korea.
   Carter also underscored that all resources under America's nuclear
   umbrella will continue to be available to South Korea.  He says an
   example of this will be a Tuesday "training flight" of a B-52 bomber
   near the peninsula.
   It is unusual for such flights to be announced in advance or
   specifically referenced by a high-ranking official. Carter did not say
   whether the bomber would be armed.
   After the deputy defense secretary's announcement, a U.S. military
   spokesman said the flight will likely originate at Anderson Air Force
   Base on the Pacific island of Guam.
   Pentagon officials earlier confirmed that a B-52 Stratofortress also
   performed a "routine continuous bomber presence mission" on March 8th
   near the Korean peninsula.
   Carter is reassuring allies in the region that the automatic U.S.
   government budget cuts which kicked in March 1 (known as sequestration)
   will not affect operations of the U.S. military in the Asia-Pacific
   region.
   The defense official's visit to South Korea was the second stop on a
   trip to Asia that includes Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/us-official-sees-north-korean-threats
   -backfiring/1623468.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/us-official-sees-north-korean-threats-backfiring/1623468.html