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The Korean and U.S. defense ministers will discuss plans to respond jointly to contingencies in North Korea, but Seoul insists this is not a way of bringing in by the back door a contingency plan of the two militaries it earlier aborted.
Military authorities of the two countries had been working on the ill-fated OPLAN 5029, which was to respond to a specific set of sudden changes in North Korea, when Seoul pulled the plug. This is the first time since then high-ranking officials from the two sides will share opinions on possible contingencies in North Korea such as regime change or civil war.
"Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung, who is attending the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday," a Korean Defense Ministry official said. "I understand the two will discuss plans for an accidental situation on the Korean Peninsula."
The official said joint plans of some kind were needed to manage contingencies in North Korea "in a stable fashion based on the Korea-U.S. alliance." He said it was likely the two defense ministers would reach agreement to that effect when they meet.
But rather than discuss a concrete response to specific contingencies, Yoon and Rumsfeld are merely expected to exchange broad views.
"The talks are more of an attempt to discuss plans to respond to an accidental situation in the North while smoothing out some of the problems that were revealed during the course of developing OPLAN 5029, about which there were differences in view between Korea and the U.S," the official said. "We are not pushing OPLAN 5029 again."
The talks will last about 45 minutes starting from 6:15 p.m. Saturday. The U.S. side will include Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Lawless and U.S. Pacific Command Adm. William Fallon, while the Korean side will include Ahn Kwang-chan, deputy defense minister for policy, and Choi Jong-il, the defense ministry's director for international cooperation.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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