The U.S. Department of Defense announced on the 3rd (local time) that China is targeting the Korean Peninsula where there are no U.S. forces near its border and is conducting military exercises in preparation for a contingency on the Korean Peninsula following the collapse of North Korea.
The Ministry of National Defense mentioned this in the section dealing with North Korea-China relations in the “China’s Military Power and Security Development Report” submitted to the National Assembly on the same day. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Northern Command’s goal in relation to the Korean Peninsula is stability, denuclearization, and the absence of U.S. forces near the Chinese border.
He also explained that the Chinese military is conducting military exercises such as land, sea, and air exercises and defense against chemical warfare in preparation for emergencies on the Korean Peninsula. “Chinese leaders can instruct the North Korean commander to carry out a variety of operations in times of crisis,” the report said. was given as an example.
The report evaluated that North Korea-China relations have stagnated due to North Korea’s own lockdown in the wake of the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) last year. Referring to the fact that high-level political and military diplomacy between North Korea and China, which resumed in 2019, suddenly stopped due to the pandemic, he said, “The North Korean regime’s paranoia about the risk of COVID-19 has prevented diplomatic exchanges between North Korea and China.” Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, predicted that the possibility of an accidental incident would be very low as the North Korean regime had good control over the North Korean military and weapons systems. This is an answer to a question asked at the Aspen Security Forum on the status of the North Korean regime’s command and control over the North’s military and weapons systems.
Washington = Correspondent Lee Jeong-eun lightee@donga.com
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