US defence secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday planned military drills with ally South Korea would send a strong message of deterrence to the North, as Seoul signaled more US sanctions ahead.
US defence secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday planned military drills with ally South Korea would send a strong message of deterrence to the North, as Seoul signaled more US sanctions ahead.
Gates is on a three-day visit to South Korea at a moment of heightened tensions on the peninsula following the North's alleged sinking of a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang has denied responsibility.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will join Gates for high level talks in Seoul on Wednesday focusing on next steps with North Korea which has signalled.
They will also visit the demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating the Koreas, a 240-km (150-mile) long, four-km (2.4-mile) wide band established at the end of the Korean War in 1953.
"(The drills) are designed to enhance our inter-operability and readiness," Gates told US troops at a base north of Seoul nestled in mountains that are 20 miles from the border. "But it is also a strong sign of deterrence, or signal of deterrence, to the North."
South Korean foreign minister Yu Myung-hwan, speaking ahead of the talks, said the United States was "considering additional sanctions against the North" in response to the sinking of the Cheonan warship.
Gates, without comment on Yu's remarks, said North Korea had already been extensively punished by sanctions.
"I think North Korea first of all is about as isolated as a country can get, in terms of the number of UN sanctions that have been voted against them," he told reporters.
But Gates acknowledged there was no quick fix to relations with Pyongyang.
"This is an ongoing challenge that has to be managed over a period of years. And I think that the pressures continue to slowly build on the North," he said.
The Koreas technically remain at war since the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice and not a peace accord. Gates said the trip to DMZ 60 years after the start of fighting would help draw attention to how troubled the region remained.
"I think it's a useful reminder that we are in an armistice and that it is a volatile region, as we saw with the Cheonan," Gates told reporters.
The DMZ visit was also a gesture meant to show a recognition "that issues of missile and nuclear proliferation in the North continue to be serious challenges for us and for our allies. And we intend to take them seriously."
Gates disclosed details about the first of a series of military exercises due be announced on Wednesday by the United States and South Korea, saying it would be large in scale.
China, North Korea's sole ally, has voiced deep concerns about any US-South Korean drills in the Yellow Sea, which separates China and the Korean peninsula, and urged regional powers to put the Cheonan incident behind them.
But Gates dismissed any concerns, saying the drills were routine.
"These exercises are off the coast of Korea, not off the coast of China. These are exercises like we have conducted for decades in the past," Gates said. "There is nothing provocative about them at all."
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