US had Contingency Plans to Drop up to 30 Nuclear Warheads on North Korea

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US had Contingency Plans to Drop up to 30 Nuclear Warheads on North Korea

by Reuben Staines

Korea Times, November 7, 2004
www.globalresearch.ca 8 November 2004


US TRAINED FOR STRIKES ON NORTH KOREA

The United States had active contingency plans as recently as 1998 to drop up to 30 nuclear warheads on North Korea in case of an attack on Seoul, according to declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. government departments.

Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported Sunday that as part of the U.S.' ``scenario 5027,'' 24 F15-E bombers flew simulation missions at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina to drop mock nuclear bombs on a firing range in Florida between January and June 1998.

It quoted the intelligence reports as saying that AWACS and KC-135 mid-air refueling planes also took part in the drills to prepare pilots for missions against North Korea from air bases in the U.S.

The revelation follows claims by an opposition party lawmaker last month that the U.S. drew up plans to launch preemptive strikes on key targets in North Korea in 1994. Labeled ``scenario 5026,'' it identified 756 targets that could be taken out by U.S. B-2 stealth bombers and F-117 stealth fighters in order to disable Pyongyang, especially its suspected nuclear weapons capabilities.

The report also comes amid concerns that re-elected U.S. President George W. Bush will take a tougher line with North Korea during his second term if it refuses to scrap its nuclear weapons programs.

The newly declassified documents also showed the U.S. kept nuclear weaponry in South Korea until at least 1998, despite officially claiming it had withdrawn all nuclear warheads in 1991, Kyodo reported....cont'd

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