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In a signal to Pyongyang to back off, the US Defense Department said on Tuesday that it is sending 24 B-1 and B-52 bombers to the island of Guam in the western Pacific as a deterrent to North Korea.
At the same time, the Pentagon was considering sending fighter jets to escort spy planes in the region after North Korean jets tailed a US reconnaissance plane over the weekend, in what the US described as "reckless actions."
US officials said the move was a prudent measure to "keep peace" on the tense Korean peninsula. "These movements are not aggressive in nature," said Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis. "Deploying these additional forces is a prudent measure to bolster our defensive posture and as a deterrent."
Davis refused to provide any details on the weapons being moved from the United States, but other defense officials told Reuters that two dozen swing-wing B-1 jets and heavy eight-engine B-52s were being moved immediately to Guam under orders signed by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
A White House spokesman said the US plans a formal protest of North Korea's "reckless actions" in sending MiG fighters close to a US RC-135S surveillance plane on Sunday, tailing it for 22 minutes.
Military officials said Tuesday the United States was reviewing its options in light of the gravity of the incident, one of the most dangerous military provocations in a months-long standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Those options could include having US fighters escort similar flights, a senior military official said. The United States has not suspended the flights and does not plan to, officials said.
The Pentagon has been hesitant in the past to arm or escort any such surveillance flights, which military officials say operate legally. Escorting the surveillance flights, some officials argue, would undercut the US assertion that the flights are not military threats.
During Sunday's incident over the Sea of Japan, four North Korean fighters came as close as 50 feet to the US Air Force plane, which was flying 150 miles off the Korean coast. The North Korean fighters illuminated the unarmed US plane with targeting radar, Davis said.
The North Korean fighters were carrying heat-seeking missiles that did not require radar locks to hit their targets, a military official said Tuesday. That means the MiGs could have fired on the slower US plane without further warning. The North Koreans shot down a US Navy EC-121 surveillance plane in 1969, killing all 31 Americans aboard.
At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush would consult with allies to determine the best way to protest the incident. Fleischer said Bush believes the North Korean standoff can be solved through diplomacy.
"North Korea continues to engage in provocative and now reckless actions," Fleischer said. "And North Korea engages in these actions as a way of saying, 'Pay me.' That will not happen."
On Capitol Hill, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee called North Korea's actions "just totally wrong." "We act within the rule of law," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va. "They are acting beyond the rule of international law." North Korea has not commented about the incident.
(China Daily March 5, 2003)
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