North Korean Policy Elites - Defense Technical Information Center

also countries surrounding the Korean peninsula,” thereby making the region “more unstable and
tense.” Two days later, KCBS informed its listeners that the U.S. Pacific Fleet had announced
plans to move anti-submarine aircraft from Hawaii to Misawa (in northern Japan), and use an
environmentally controversial “low-frequency detector” at sea. 75
U.S. negotiations with the ROK to redeploy American soldiers from the DMZ and Seoul
to south of the Han River did not go unnoticed by the DPRK media. On June 27, Nodong Sinmun
termed the planned redeployment “a very dangerous military move which should not be
overlooked.” 76 The article explained that “It is the view of the U.S. military strategists that when
a war starts in Korea, Seoul and areas north of it will turn into a sea of fire in a matter of days
due to North Korea’s strong artillery fire power, and none of the U.S. troops within its firing
range will be able to survive.” Thus the redeployment plan was viewed in the context of a
“strategy for a preemptive attack on the DPRK.” On July 27, Nodong Sinmun cautioned the
United States not to forget its “past defeat” in the Korean War, and warned that “it is utter folly
for the U.S. to think that its troops will go scot-free when they are relocated in areas south of
Seoul.” 77 At the end of the year, Nodong Sinmun published an article citing a November 25
message by President George W. Bush in which he reportedly announced global redeployment
plans for U.S. forces. 78 According to the article, a “considerably large” number of U.S. troops
currently stationed in Germany were to be redeployed to eastern Europe as part of a larger
strategy aimed at “modernizing and lightening U.S. military units and deploying them closer to
‘danger spots’ (citing a Wall Street Journal article).” The article claimed that “in this
redeployment program, the Bush administration puts the focus on the Asia-Pacific region,” and
warned that “maneuvers for redeploying U.S. forces are an extremely dangerous scheme for war
aimed at realizing an ugly design for world hegemony by force at all costs.”
Another Bush administration strategy that received some attention was the Proliferation
Security Initiative (PSI), although the North Korean domestic press appears not to have labeled it
as such. An item carried by KCTV and KCBS on June 8 said that at the recent G-8 summit, the
United States had made a proposal “to inspect and check ships and planes carrying nuclear
substances, missile parts, and equipment and materials necessary to manufacture them. This, in
essence, is aimed to justify blockades against sovereign countries like our country.” 79 Relating
this initiative to what the Kim regime sees as the reluctance of the United States to engage in
75 KCBS, December 29, 2003. FBIS KPP20031229000049.
76 KCNA, June 27, 2003; citing a Nodong Sinmun article of the same date. FBIS KPP20030627000085.
77 KCNA, July 27, 2003; citing a Nodong Sinmun article of the same date. FBIS KPP20030727000021.
78 Nodong Sinmun, December 15, 2003, carried on the Uriminzokkiri web site (http://www.uriminzokkiri.com).
FBIS KPP20031216000050.
79 KCTV, June 8, 2003. FBIS KPP20030608000037.
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