North Korea still poses a serious military threat after retooling its military even while easing its isolation and sparking hopes of an end to decades of confrontation, a Pentagon report finds. A detailed survey of the security situation on the Korean peninsula, made public in a report to Congress on Friday, tries to divine the motives of the opaque government of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. The report, which cautions that there is as yet little concrete evidence that North Korea intends to step back from a posture of confrontation, was made public a few days before new talks next week between Washington and Pyongyang.
It is the latest sign that the United States still sees no reason to moderate its line on North Korea, or to scale back the size of its 37,000 strong garrison protecting the south.
Until North Korea's conventional military threat is significantly reduced, and its quest for nuclear weapons is eliminated, the Korean peninsula remains a dangerous theatre, said the report. The report welcomes the historic summit between North and South Korea in June, and the easing of Pyongyang's diplomatic isolation while warning that insufficient evidence exists to conclude whether Kim Jong-Il desires to enter the community of responsible nations, or is simply extracting material aid and offering little of substance in return.
However, the report notes, the possibility of chairman Kim Jong-Il pursuing a course of reconciliation and reform cannot be totally ruled out.
Bureau Report