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Josephine Ma

China, the United States, South Korea and Japan should discuss military cooperation in case the North Korean regime collapses, a former US commander has said.
General Walter Sharp, former commander of the ROK-US combined forces command, told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday that the possibility of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s regime collapsing was increasing because of internal forces.
More information from outside the country was now entering the once-insulated state; it was also under pressure from international economic sanctions, he said.
‘It’s hard to predict the future’: China, North Korea talks now only at work level, says former top Chinese diplomat
Sharp was speaking on the sidelines of two-day Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul, of which the Post is a media partner.
Also rising, Sharp said, was the risk of rapid escalation of conflicts if the North fired artilleries at the South or embarked on other military provocations as it did in 2010 when it allegedly sank a South Korean warship.
The risk was increasing as such provocations would invoke strong response from both South Korea and the US, he said.

“If an attack happens like what [Pyongyang] did in 2010, South Korea and the US will strike very, very hard,” Sharp said.
“I worry in that scenario whether we would be able to control escalation because I think things will happen very, very quickly on both sides.”
North Korea fired artilleries at Yeonpyeong island in South Korea in November 2010, resulting in a few deaths and injuring more than a dozen people. Seoul retaliated by shelling North Korean positions.
Earlier in March 2010, Seoul also blamed a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine for sinking its navy ship Cheonan.
Sharp said South Korea and other countries should discuss possible scenarios of a reunified peninsula and the final outcome they hoped for, including the presence of US forces.
‘North Korea has become an increasing threat to China’
“I think there is a strong need for the US, South Korea, China and Japan to kind of sit together and talk seriously about what a unified peninsula looks like. Let’s get down to some specifics,” he said, adding that Russia might also join the talks because of its long common border with the North.
The specifics, Sharp said, would include where the US forces should go, border controls, port rights for China and refugee settlements.
“I am very confident that the US will be very comfortable in saying the US forces will not go any further than where we go right now,” he said.
Sharp said there had yet to be such discussions formally and that having them would help reduce the risks of instability and uncertainties if the Kim regime did indeed collapse.
Earlier discussions between top Chinese and US officials mostly touched only on how to stop Pyongyang from developing nuclear weapons, he said.
China unlikely to come to North Korea’s defence if tensions escalate over nuclear weapons tests, say Chinese experts
Asked what the US response would be if China demanded zero US military presence in a reunified Korean peninsula, Sharp said: “This is part of the whole discussion.”
Sharp said US would want to link its controversial anti-ballistic system Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) in South Korea and Japan, if it was installed, to increase its effectiveness in intercepting missiles from Pyongyang.

He dismissed China’s concerns over the THAAD system, reiterating that the system was purely defensive and had no offensive ability.
Beijing has previously voiced strong opposition to the system as its radar has a range that would extend far beyond the Korean peninsula and into China, thus posing as a security threat.
Why does China react so strongly over the South Korea-based anti-missile system?
“I hope that [THAAD] would have the ability to share intelligence and be able to target missiles coming out from North Korea from all different countries in this area. I think that would be a great benefit,” Sharp said.
Japanese media late last year quoted its defence minister Gen Nakatani as saying that Tokyo was considering installing the system.
Evans Revere, senior fellow of the Brookings Institute, said China was worried to see a regional anti-ballistic defence system.
“The real objection from China is not about the THAAD system being deployed [in South Korea]. The real objection lies in if it is linked into a THAAD system in Japan and linked into a regional missile defence system.” Revere said.


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Asian Leadership Conference

General Walter Sharp. Photo: Josephine Ma

epa05137977 South Korean protesters shout slogans as they hold banners during a rally against government's military policies near the presidential house in Seoul, South Korea, 02 February 2016. Protesters demanded the end of discussions between South Korea and the USA on the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)'s arrangement in the Korean peninsula. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN

General Walter L. Sharp (C), Commander of United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, and United States Forces Korea, listens to South Korean General Yun Kong-yong (R) as he looks around houses destroyed by North Korean artillery shelling, at a village on Yeonpyeong Island November 26, 2010. North Korea said on Friday that impending military exercises by the South and the United States are pushing the region towards war, days after it launched its heaviest bombardment since the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea fired shells at the island of Yeonpyeong off the peninsula's west coast on Tuesday, killing two civilians and two soldiers and destroying dozens of houses. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak (SOUTH KOREA - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY DISASTER CONFLICT)

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General Walter Sharp points to rising risks of regime collapse and escalation of conflicts


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New | China, US and others should join hands to make plans in case North Korea collapses: former US commander

General Walter Sharp points to rising risks of regime collapse and escalation of conflicts