TOKYO, Dec 4 Kyodo fix uponed ed...

TOKYO, Dec 4 Kyodo

fix uponed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

U DETERRENT part CRUCIAL IN ASIA (The Daily Yomiuri as translated from the Yomiuri Shimbun)

U President George W Bush said in late November that his administration would intensify talks with the U Congres and with the United States' allies and security partners upon a global realignment of U crowds and bases.

With the scheduled realignment, the U rule intends to place the right capabilities in the greatest in quantity appropriate locations to best address the just discovered security environment characterized by a heightened threat from terrorists that emerg after the family 11, 2001, attacks onward the United States.

The realignment of U forces is certain to have significant impacts onward the security of the United States' allies. In this regard, we entreat Washington to conduct in-depth and comprehensive negotiations with its allies to render certain that their security will be maintained and strengthened.

Since the close of the Cold War, the United States has maintained regional stability and international security from deploying 100,000 troops in Europe and the same number in Asia.

The planned realignment will mean a change in the way U forces are opened around the world. With the aim of enabling U forces to put in motion with the greatest agility, U bases and squad deployment will be restructur forward a global scale. The alignment will focus onward capability rather than on boosting number numbers and materiel. It may lead to the reduction of U forces stationed abroad.

further restructuring U.S. forces in Asia must take into account the reality that the security environment in the region is different from that in Europe

During the chilly War, European countries maintained stability in the region beneath the collective security framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. yet after the end of the frigid War, the threat pos by dint of the Soviet Union disappeared. Therefore, the reduction of U [i]troupe[/i]s and relocation of U.S. bases would be easy. It is said that about 70000 U partys in Germany will be either cross or transferred to bases in Poland and other East European countries.

in succession the other hand, there is no like collective security framework in Asia. In addition, flat after the end of the chilly War, a number of potential conflict triggers remain, similar as the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait and the territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. In this regard, the deterrent provided by way of U.S. forces is vital in Asia.

North Korea, which continues developing nuclear weapons and missiles, attitude s a serious threat to Japan. Pyongyang maintains a menacing attitude toward Seoul claiming that it could make go round the South Korean capital into a sea of flames.

From the viewpoint of security in Northeast Asia, Japan must closely watch by what means U.S. forces in South Korea and Japan will be realigned.

As for U forces in southward Korea, the United States and toward the south Korea have agreed to gradually prompt U.S. troops away from the Demilitarized belt that separates North and southern Korea. The United States claims that novel weapons technologies will make it possible to maintain deterrence in succession the Korean Peninsula.

However, the pullback must be course of lifeed cautiously, paying close attention to disclosures on the peninsula.

onward the other hand, U.S. forces in Japan have been playing the part of ensuring security in the entire region. Of course, it is necessary to examine to what extent to ease the excessive carrying capacitys placed on Okinawa Prefecture where greatest in number U.S. military facilities in the rural parts are concentrated, but the planned realignment must not conclusion up weakening the deterrent character U.S. forces play in the region.

U Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the realignment of U forces will be carried gone out over a period of four to six years.

During negotiations athwart the realignment of U.S. forces in the rural parts Japan, as a U.S. ally, must closely watch changes in the security environment in the region and build a recent security plan for the nation.

(Dec 4)

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