97293. U.S. to Question North Korean Defector

By Linda D. Kozaryn

American Forces Press Service



	WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials will get a chance to question a

high-ranking North Korean defector who recently arrived in South

Korea, DoD officials here said.

	Hwang Jang Yop and his aide Kim Dok Hung sought asylum at

the Republic of Korea's consulate in Beijing more than two months

ago. They arrived in Seoul April 20 after a stay in the

Philippines.

	North Korea "is one of the most dangerous flash points in

the world," Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said on NBC Meet

the Press April 21. Cohen said Republic of Korea officials

assured him during his recent trip to Seoul that the United

States will have access to the defector "to find out more about

what's in the hearts and minds."

	U.S. officials consider Hwang, North Korea's leading

ideologue -- a zealous advocate of the communist regime -- a very

important defector, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said at a

Pentagon briefing April 22. "The South Koreans have promised to

share their information with us, and they have made it very clear

we will have our own independent access to defector Hwang," Bacon

said.

	DoD officials expect to talk with Hwang in several weeks, he

said. The United States is interested in information on nuclear

weapons, military readiness, missile production and North Korean

leadership, DoD officials said.

	Hwang told reporters in Seoul that North Korea is prepared

to use its "formidable armed forces" to solve its "economic

paralysis." Hwang said the North Korean people have "lost hope"

and the nation has been reduced to "a beggar country," according

to a New York Times report.

	North Korea, one of the world's last bastions of communism,

is facing severe food shortages and malnutrition due to problems

caused by the tightly-controlled, centralized system, DoD

officials said. Severe flooding in the last several years have

contributed to widespread famine. Despite economic failure and

starvation among its people, North Korea has maintained powerful

military forces.

	Defense officials consider North Korea's military capability

troubling, Bacon said. They have the world's fourth largest army

with 1.2 million troops, he said. "Fifty percent of it is arrayed

along the demilitarized zone. They have extensive artillery

trained on South Korea. They have worked very hard to build

dangerous and threatening weapons." Their arsenal includes

chemical and biological weapons and long-range missiles, DoD

officials said.

	DoD takes the North Korean threat seriously and is

interested in what intelligence defector Hwang can provide, Bacon

said. But, he noted, there is no evidence of increased military

preparedness.

	"Although this is a very powerful ... military force arrayed

against the Republic of Korea and against our own forces, the

general level of exercise and training has fallen off somewhat in

the last several years from what it had been in the past," Bacon

said. "We attribute this in part to the impact of their economic

problems."

	The United States is committed to maintaining 100,000 troops

to provide security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.

About 37,000 troops are forward-deployed in the Republic of Korea

and another 47,000 are stationed in Japan to counter the threat

from the north.

	Defense leaders beefed up these forces in 1994 in response

to North Korea's developing nuclear program, Bacon said. At the

time, U.S. officials believed North Korea had generated enough

plutonium to make at least one nuclear weapon, he said.

	"We persuaded them to stop through negotiations, which led

to the Framework Agreement," Bacon said. "It is generally

believed that the North Korean nuclear program is frozen.

Although there can be no absolute assurance that it does not

already possess a small number of nuclear weapons."

	The U.S. goal has been and continues to be to convince North

Korea that it is futile to look for military solutions to their

problems, Bacon said. "We believe we have a very powerful

defensive force that could respond extremely quickly with

devastating power to any attack made against us or the Republic

of Korea," he said.



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