S. Korea to deploy US strategic military assets

Associated Press

PYONGYANG, North Korea

South Korea says it will deploy strategic U.S. military assets to the Korean Peninsula and consider placing additional launchers of an advanced U.S. anti-missile system on its soil following North Korea’s second test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The latest measures were announced today by South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo, hours after the launch left analysts concluding that the mainland U.S. was now within range of North Korean weapons.

Song told reporters in Seoul he will discuss with U.S. military commanders in South Korea temporarily placing additional THAAD launchers. There are currently two THAAD launchers operational in the South and one THAAD battery consists of six.

Song did not specify what the strategic assets are, but they usually refer to U.S. stealth bombers and aircraft carriers.

Immediately after the launch late Friday evening, U.S. and South Korean forces conducted a live-fire exercise this morning during which they fired missiles off South Korea’s east coast.

The drill involved the surface-to-surface Army Tactical Missile System and South Korea’s Hyunmoo Missile II. Analysts had estimated that the North’s first ICBM could have reached Alaska, and said Friday that the latest missile appeared to extend that range significantly.

David Wright, a physicist and co-director of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in Washington that if reports of the missile’s maximum altitude and flight time are correct, it would have a theoretical range of at about 6,500 miles. That means it could have reached Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago, depending on variables such as the size and weight of the warhead that would be carried atop such a missile in an actual attack.

Bruce Klingner, a Korean and Japanese affairs specialist at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, said, “It now appears that a significant portion of the continental United States is within range” of North Korean missiles.