At a joint news conference, the ministry said that Defense Minister Cho Yung-kil and USFK Commander Leon J. LaPorte met last week to discuss the plan to increase the capability of the Combined Forces Command.

Various aspects of the USFK will be upgraded; it will get unmanned planes for reconnaissance and attack purposes; the latest version of the Patriot missile, the PAC3; a rotational deployment on the peninsula of several units of the quick-to-deploy Striker Brigade Combat Team; equipment for one heavily-armed brigade, stored on vessels at a port; an improvement or replacement of AH-64A Apache helicopters for the AH-64D, the Apache Longbow; and massive introduction of precision-guided bombs, including JDAMs.

The two countries said that the plan was designed to augment the USFK's mid- to long-term capabilities, and had nothing to do with the North Korean nuclear issue. But skeptics said the magnitude of the upgrades were surprisingly large, and thought it unusual that the numerous improvements would be publicized in a single announcement instead of one-by-one. (Yoo Yong-won, kysu@chosun.com )