Pentagon launches task force for N. Korean provocations: spokesman

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 8 (Yonhap) -- The Pentagon has launched a team that will focus
on ways to respond to any continued provocations from North Korea, Pentagon Press
Secretary Geoff Morrell said Monday.
"He has tasked his policy team with trying to figure out creative and prudent
ways to bolster defenses in the event that the North continues down this route,"
Morrell said in a daily news briefing, referring to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert
Gates.
The spokesman was discussing North Korea's recent nuclear and missile tests and
threats to boycott six-party talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs, as
well as its announcement that is terminating the armistice that ended the 1950-53
Korean War, citing the hostile stance of the U.S. and the international
community.
Morrell said that nothing specific had been discussed at a trilateral meeting
between Gates and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Singapore last
week over "additional defensive measures" should the North refuse to abandon its
nuclear program.
"And the truth is, he did not have anything specifically in mind," he said,
adding that Washington still focuses on diplomacy.
"Obviously, we never take anything off the table in terms of what our options are
should the North not be dissuaded from pursuing a nuclear-weapons capability, but
that's not where our focus is right now," he said. "The focus is on working with
the U.N."
The U.N. Security Council has been trying to come up with a resolution to punish
North Korea for its nuclear test for two weeks amid continued reluctance by China
and Russia to impose an overall arms embargo and financial sanctions. The North's
staunchest allies, both Moscow and Beijing are hesitant to undermine any
possibility that Pyongyang will return to stalled six-party talks.
At issue is how to exclude humanitarian and normal financial transactions from
U.N. sanctions and to avoid a breach with international law, which stipulates
that all cargo inspections first be approved by the country of the flag carried
by the vessel.
"Our focus is now and has been and likely will continue to be on coming up with
diplomatic and economic pressures that will persuade the North from abandoning
its pursuit of nuclear weapons and the platforms to deliver them," the spokesman
said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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