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The United States has notified South Korea's defense minister about a plan to send equipment but not troops for one heavy brigade to a local port, where it would be stored on three or four transport vessels, an informed source said this week. The move is seen by some analysts as part of plan by Washington to safeguard against an emergency situation should the talks with North Korea to settle the nuclear crisis break down.
The equipment would comprise 130 tanks and infantry fighting vehicles and 110 other vehicles, along with supplies and ammunition. The vessels would be in the 40,000-60,000 ton class.
The South Korean government will take an earnest approach about whether to accept this proposal, as well as determining details like place and time, while bearing in mind the sensitivity of the issue with relation to North Korea, the source said.
The United States also decided to bolster its defenses here by deploying an additional 16 PAC-3 Patriot missiles in addition to the 48 Patriots already on the peninsula. The move would more effectively counter North Korea's ballistic missiles.
The U.S. Forces Korea is also planning to build an additional landing strip at Osan air base to enable quicker movement of forces and equipment if an emergency were to occur. Also, it wants to upgrade the forward-deployed 2nd Infantry Division to SBCT (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) status, to make its forces lighter and more mobile. America is also studying plans to send an SBCT unit to South Korea this summer for a military exercise.
A USFK official said the transformation to SBCT was in line with America's long-term plans to reorganize and reduce its troop count here while strengthening its fighting power and deterrence effect at the same time. He denied that the plans were related to the nuclear issue with North Korea. But some experts said the moves seemed to be designed to prepare for a possible worsening of the crisis.
(Yoo Yong-won, kysu@chosun.com )
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