“If N. Korea starts War, Kim Jung-il Regime Will Be Vanished”

“If North Korea started a war, the outcome would never be in doubt. The conflict would end with the end of that regime,” Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday.

Gen. Myers said as above while appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on his nomination for second.

He, however, said that the U.S. is working together with South Korea, Japan and China to diplomatically resolve North Korea`s nuclear crisis.

“37,000 U.S. troops in Korea and Korean forces are best trained in case of war and they are ready for combat, even if war breaks out tonight,” Gen. Myers emphasized. “However, if war breaks out, it will be an enormous tragedy.”

“70% of the its forces, in other words, over one million North Korean troops, are deployed in south of Pyongyang, and as long-range missiles that can reach Seoul are positioned near the Demilitarized Zone, massive human causalities (that are by no means comparable to those in Iraq or Afghanistan) are expected to occur,” he said.

“The North claims that it has already got enough nuclear material to make 6 to 12 nuclear weapons and has finished reprocessing spent fuel rods. This is a very critical problem,” he pointed out.

“The North is the biggest missile technology exporting country in the world that is also on the terrorist sponsoring county list. When a country that desires to have nuclear materials approaches a country that needs moneys, and vice versa, it becomes very dangers,” Gen. Myers emphasized his concerns.

When asked how he will replace the difference when over U.S. 100,000 troops are sent to the South to carry out a war in case of war breaks out in the Korean peninsula, he replied, “I am thoroughly reviewing and revising U.S. troop rotation plans and war plans for a possible war in Korea in order to secure combat power in preparation for the worst scenario that the North attacks the South.”

maypole@donga.com