By South Korea is continuing their efforts to renegotiate a treaty with the US that limits their ballistic missile capabilities:
Korea is pushing to revise a bilateral pact with the United States that limits the former’s ballistic missile range to 300 kilometers with a maximum payload of 500 kilograms by early 2013, a government source said Monday.
He pointed out that Seoul has the upper hand in ongoing negotiations with Washington as it plans to purchase as much as 14 trillion won ($12.3 billion) of weapons from abroad next year, mostly from the United States.
“The United States will be pressured to take Korea’s growing calls for the revision of the bilateral pact seriously as it is eager to sell weapons such as the Global Hawk, which carries a payload of 1 ton and flies more than 22,000 kilometers,”the source said.
According to a military source, Korea is also seeking to buy long-range cruise missiles with a range of 370 kilometers and a warhead of 450 kilograms from the United States for 400 billion won.
Citing an unnamed government official, the Munhwa Ilbo claimed Monday that the Lee Myung-bak administration plans to conclude its ongoing negotiations with Washington by the end of its term in office, February 2013.
“The government aims to increase the military’s maximum ballistic missile range from 300 to 800 kilometers and the warhead mass from 500 to 800 kilograms,” the paper reported.
There have been growing calls to revise the pact following the North’s development of long-range missiles and its conducting of nuclear tests, as well as a series of provocative acts.
Some argue that the range should be more than 1,000 km to bring all of North Korea within reach and the payload weight to more than 1 ton. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if this has as much to do with having not only all of North Korea within the range of the ROK’s missiles, but Beijing as well?
She hasn’t seen...
10:38 am on December 5th, 2011 1
Korea having better military capabilities to defend itself means less burden on US forces.
The US should definitely and logically allow Korea to have such better military capabilities.
1:00 pm on December 5th, 2011 2
If anything, more Tokyo than Beijing.
3:04 pm on December 5th, 2011 3
The Republic of Korea has to be able to defend itself. That’s fundamental to the Glans Plan.
4:31 pm on December 5th, 2011 4
K is all about upping the military technology transfers.
5:55 pm on December 5th, 2011 5
That treaty was done so as to limit Chinese involvement. If SK has missiles that could target Chinese targets, then the Chinese have an excuse to target SK assets.
This is more about SK wanting to have parity with NK, of course it’ll end up dragging China into the mix.
6:22 pm on December 5th, 2011 6
China could extricate itself from the mix by adopting the Glans Plan.
7:53 pm on December 5th, 2011 7
I have a question to military personnel here: The USA’s “nuclear umbrela” commitment with south korea is a formaly stated treaty between our two countries or just a verbal promise?
8:04 pm on December 5th, 2011 8
DR Yu,
It is American Policy to use Nuclear weapons only if we are attacked by nuclear weapons first.
However we reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in response to chemical weapons (vis a vis Iraq under Sadam).
So, there is no “promise” verbal or written. But since American troops are staioned in S. Korea an attack there would be an attack on all.
So according to American policy dropping a nuke on Pyongyang would be justified, if they attacked first.
Oh wait a preempive strike may be justified.
Don’t you love the flexibility of American policy.
10:42 pm on December 5th, 2011 9
S Korea is purchasing more than 12 billion US$ on weapons annually and “most” of them are from the U.S. You ask why does the U.S. Government have its military personnel on the K. Penn.? It’s all about the money… not the “alliance”, “friendship”, “North Koreans”…. it’s about money… it’s lucrative for American businesses to have US Army sit on the Korean Peninsula. They have leverage on the Korean Government and its people.
And the missile treaty – it is most prominent example of the U.S. control over the South Korean Government and its people.
S Korea is not truely independent as a nation.
10:43 pm on December 5th, 2011 10
Lee Myung Bak will go down in the history book as the worst American dog who’d ever lived in modern times.
10:44 pm on December 5th, 2011 11
Friendship is one thing but acting like a dog is another.
MB is an American lap dog. Looking for its master’s approval.
I’d love turn it into a Boshintang soup.
3:35 am on December 6th, 2011 12
Ole Tanker, thanks for your information.
6:17 am on December 6th, 2011 13
“S Korea is purchasing more than 12 billion US$ on weapons annually and “most” of them are from the U.S”
Seriously?