Top US military official arrives South Korea amid North Korea tension

The United States’ top military official has landed in South Korea ahead of talks with the country’s leader and United States military amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph. Dunford arrived at Osan Air Base Monday, and is scheduled to meet with the leaders of US Forces Korea and South Korea President Moon Jae-in.

CNN said the looming threat of a North Korean missile strike on the US territory of Guam, and Pyongyang’s increasing nuclear capabilities, have exacerbated tensions in the region.

“Gen. Dunford just arrived in Osan Air Base to meet with US Forces Korea leadership and explore the Camp Humphreys area with his team on board 2 UH-60 Black Hawks,” a short statement on the Joint Staff Facebook page states. The trip has been long scheduled and was not arranged in response to the North Korean nuclear threat.

“The trip highlights our ironclad commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea in the face of North Korea’s provocations and threats,” the statement said.

Dunford prefaced his Asia trip with a trip to Hawaii to meet with US Pacific Command, and will visit also visit key ally Japan, as well as regional superpower China.

The three-country visit is in “support (of) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s diplomatic and economic campaign to deter North Korea” from seeking an effective nuclear deterrent, according to a US Department of Defense statement.

North Korean military figures are putting the final touches on a plan to fire four missiles into the waters around the US territory of Guam, to be presented to leader Kim Jong Un within days.

In a statement last week, Gen. Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army, said the plan to fire “four Hwasong-12 intermediate-range strategic ballistic rockets … to signal a crucial warning to the US” would be ready by “mid-August.”

A notice put out by Guam’s Joint Information Center Saturday warned residents how to prepare “for an imminent missile threat.”

“Do not look at the flash or fireball it can blind you,” the note said. “Lie flat on the ground and cover your head. If the explosion is some distance away, it could take 30 seconds or more for the blast wave to hit.”

On Saturday, some of Japan’s land-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile interceptors began arriving at Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) bases in three of the four prefectures any North Korean missiles would likely fly over en route to Guam.

Pyongyang identified three of those areas Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi prefectures in its statement last week.

A spokesman for SDF said the missiles were being deployed not to intercept missiles, but rather “just in case.” He did not elaborate.

Sim Tack, a senior analyst for private intelligence firm Stratfor, said the Japanese batteries are designed for protecting the area where they are deployed, “(they are) not meant to shoot missiles out of the sky as they pass over Japan at high altitude.”

“So unless those North Korean missiles were to fall short, the Patriots shouldn’t have a function to serve in this particular case,” he said.