South Korea Defense

President Clinton on Sunday expressed a "debt of gratitude" to U.S. military personnel around the world for their role in deterring the development and use of weapons of mass destruction and stressed the need to remain "vigilant," particularly in the face of threats from Iraq and North Korea. Although he was speaking in South Korea, Clinton clearly had the ongoing tensions with Iraq on his mind. Just a little more than a week earlier, he gave the go-ahead for a massive airstrike against Iraq.

A meeting of top U.S. and South Korean defense officials went off smoothly this week, but just out of sight lurked an unsettling question: Has Seoul grown complacent about the immediate threat from North Korea and too worried about the power rivalry it sees ahead with Japan? While official conversations here between U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and his counterparts centered on what the 1.2-million-member North Korean army might do next, some U.S.

South Korean troops killed two more North Korean agents in gun battles in mountainous terrain early today. Two South Korean soldiers hunting the infiltrators were also killed, the Defense Ministry said. The deaths brought to 20 the number of North Korean intruders killed or found dead since their submarine was discovered marooned off the east coast of South Korea last week.

A violent espionage drama between the two Koreas deepened Thursday as Southern forces killed a total of seven infiltrators from the enemy North and a captured spy confessed that his side had conducted intelligence operations on South Korean air defense systems. The casualties brought to 18 the number of North Koreans left dead after their submarine ran aground near the eastern city of Kangnung on Wednesday in what Seoul is calling Pyongyang's worst provocation in nearly 30 years.