North Korea is on a quest to develop nuclear-armed ballistic
missiles that can strike the United States, and the best way to counter
Pyongyang is with combat power and strong alliances, the commander of U.S.
forces in the Pacific said on Tuesday.Admiral Harry Harris, the head of U.S.
Pacific Command, told a South Korea support group in Washington that no threat
in the region was "more dangerous than North Korea" and its leader
Kim Jong-un.
"He recently
threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes against the United States and other
countries in the region," Harris said. "Folks, make no mistake about
it. North Korea is on a quest for nuclear weapons, the means to miniaturize
them and the ways to deliver them intercontinentally."
Harris said the threat
from Pyongyang was one reason he has been working to boost trilateral
cooperation among South Korea, Japan and the United States. Military
cooperation among the three "is good, and I'd like to get it better,"
he said.
Harris said the recent
settlement of the Second World War "comfort women" issue between
Japan and South Korea would help enable better cooperation.
Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe's new defense guidelines allowing Tokyo to play a more robust role
in security affairs also will help, he added.
"Working
trilaterally, I believe we can bolster our collective defense against North
Korean provocations," Harris said.
He said U.S., Japanese
and South Korean diplomats plan to expand cooperation due to North Korea's
aggressive nuclear and missile testing program this year. They also decided to
build on a trilateral information-sharing arrangement aimed at countering
Pyongyang's missile threats.
Under the umbrella of
that deal, they plan to conduct a missile defense exercise on the sidelines of
the Rim of the Pacific naval maneuvers this summer, Pentagon Press Secretary
Peter Cook said this week.
Harris said the exercise
would improve their ability to "operate together in a ballistic missile
defense environment."
U.S. and South Korean
officials are currently discussing whether to deploy the U.S. THAAD missile
defense system on the peninsula. Harris said that decision would be made
jointly by the alliance.
Regarding China's
island-building in the South China Sea, Harris said Washington had more areas
of constructive collaboration with Beijing than it had disputes. But he noted
China sometimes engaged in "provocative and aggressive behavior."
"We should
cooperate with China wherever we can, but we have to confront China where we
must," Harris said. "Some of their activities in the South China Sea
falls into that category."