Kim Jong-il feared targeting after Saddam (hid from public view for 50 days)

The New York Times, Reuters, Agence France-Presse via SMH ^ | May 13 2003

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United States intelligence officials have concluded that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, went into seclusion during the final build-up to the war in Iraq because he feared that he too might be the target of attack. This led the Pentagon to consider new ways to keep him and his inner circle on edge as a way of bolstering deterrence on the peninsula.

Intelligence reports say Mr Kim vanished from public view for 50 days starting in mid-February, a time when the Pentagon also moved bombers into the Korean area of operations.

The military's ability to mount precision attacks on leadership targets in Iraq is now being examined to see how it might apply in a standoff with North Korea, perhaps influencing Pyongyang's behaviour without ever firing a shot.

A Defence Department official said that lessons from the attacks against Iraq's Saddam Hussein, including short-notice air strikes on suspected hideouts in the opening and closing days of the war, were shaping discussions of how best to rearrange the US military presence in South Korea and nearby in the Pacific.

The goal would be to assemble in the Korean region the same kind of detailed intelligence on high-priority targets and the ability to strike almost instantaneously with precision weapons should the need arise.

"Truly, if I'm Kim Jong-il, I wake up tomorrow morning and I'm thinking, 'Have the Americans arrayed themselves on the peninsula now, post-Iraq, the way they arrayed themselves in Iraq, rather than the way they were pre-Iraq?'," the Defence Department official said.

"And the idea is to make the North Koreans realise that we are arrayed, we are deployed, we are committed in Korea with the types of resources and types of capabilities that we brought to Iraq," he added. "And we think that doing that will make our deterrence there much more credible and much stronger."

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun will urge US President George Bush to join him this week in a public promise to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea by peaceful means, The Washington Times reported yesterday.

Mr Roh, who is expected to meet Mr Bush tomorrow, is on a visit aimed at co-ordinating efforts to rein in the communist North's nuclear ambitions.

The Washington Times said Mr Roh would urge the White House to exempt North Korea from the US policy of "pre-empting" regimes that pursue weapons of mass destruction.

"The mere thought of military conflict with North Korea is a calamity for us," Mr Roh said. "If possible, we think it is much more reasonable for us to induce North Korea to reform itself and to open up to the outside world.

"Of course, alongside pursuing the engagement policy we are fully prepared and fully braced for a possible calamity."

In a hardening of tone on North Korea, Mr Roh, at a meeting with Korean residents in New York, also urged Pyongyang to irreversibly scrap its nuclear weapons drive.

[Victor]

Be very afraid, you little dweeb....

[martin_fierro]

I sure hope the NYT didn't make this story up.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

The mere thought of military conflict with North Korea is a calamity for us," Mr Roh said. "If possible, we think it is much more reasonable for us to induce North Korea to reform itself and to open up to the outside world.

Yes, that has worked well for the past 50 years, hasn't it Mr. Roh? You would think he was a U.S. Democrat. It is also helpful to appease dictators with frightened talk like that. It makes them more peaceful, right? Leave the protecting of your butt to us and just STFU.