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World War IV

http://rds.yahoo.com/S=53720272/K=korea/v=2/SID=w/l=NSR/R=45/SIG=1260uuio3/*-http%3A//straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,276340,00.html

OCT 6, 2004

China could get drawn into war on Korean peninsula

SEOUL - South Korea's military authorities said yesterday they expected that China would be drawn inevitably into any war on the Korean peninsula because of a mutual assistance treaty with North Korea.

'China is expected to provide limited military support to North Korea, according to a provision of the mutual assistance treaty stipulating automatic engagement,' Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Kim Jong Hwan told a parliamentary hearing.

China would deploy some 400,000 troops in support of North Korea in case of war with South Korea, which would be backed by its ally the United States, according to JCS data provided to the hearing.

China's support would include 800 planes and 150 navy vessels, the JCS data said.

The South Korea-US combined troops would number 720,000, while North Korea's regular 1.17-million-men military would be reinforced with 6.34 million reserve forces, according to the data.

(snip)

Last Update: 07/10/2004 01:11
Martin Indyk: Assad offering to make peace with Israel
By Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Syrian President Bashar Assad is offering to make peace with Israel and says he is ready to cooperate with the United States in stabilizing Iraq, a former senior State Department official said Wednesday.
"Something is going on in Syria and it is time for us to pay attention," said Martin Indyk, assistant secretary of state for the Near East and U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration.

In a three-hour meeting with the Syrian president last month in Damascus, Indyk said he detected a "clear change" in Assad's views on a number of fronts.

On peacemaking, Assad offered to hold talks with Israel without preconditions, Indyk said, and had made several overtures to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that the latter rebuffed.

In the past, Indyk said, Syria had insisted that any peace talks should resume where they left off during the Clinton administration - with Israel offering to give up all of the Golan Heights, a strategic area Israel won in the 1967 Mideast war.

And, Indyk said, Assad had dropped a demand that Israel reach an agreement with the Palestinians before Israel could resume negotiations with Syria.

On the domestic side, Indyk said, Assad spoke "about the need to reform the government."

"It's worth watching and it is worth testing," Indyk said at a seminar at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, of which Indyk is the director.

Indyk said Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa was not at his meeting with Assad, evidence the former American diplomat said that change was under way and that al-Sharaa "and others in the old guard are being systematically silenced."

On Monday, Assad shuffled his Cabinet. Ghazi Kenaan, 62, until two years ago Syria's top intelligence general in neighboring Lebanon, was named interior minister. Al-Sharaa retained his post. (snipped)

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/485831.html