SEOUL Feb 4 Kyodo The commander o...

SEOUL Feb 4 Kyodo

The commander of the U forces in southerly Korea said Tuesday he has not now asked Washington for a buildup of U bodys in South Korea in the wake of heightened tension with North Korea, according to U military officials.

Gen Leon LaPorte told southward Korean media that if of that kind additional forces are required upon the Korean Peninsula, he would seek counsel with South Korea's National Defense Ministry.

He said that the United States ''constantly reviews its disposition of forces in all regions of the world.''

The commander's remarks go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of Friday's reports by major U television networks that the U Pacific Command is seeking to expand more troops and warplanes in southern Korea and Japan in reply to the building crisis through North Korea's resumption of its nuclear growth program.

CBS television reported that the Pacific Command was requesting that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld agree to add about 2000 partys mostly Air Force personnel, to back up the 37000 already stationed in toward the south Korea,

It was also reportedly seeking to add eight F-15 fighters plus reconnaissance aircraft to U bases in southward Korea and Japan, and a total of brace dozen B-52 and B-1 long-range bombers to be mov to the U territory of Guam.

The novel York Times reported last week that the Pacific Command has also demanded sending an aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula.

The reported solicit for additional troops comes amid reports that U satellite photos have shown North Korea could be about to start reprocessing exhausted uranium fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium.

Meanwhile, North Korea's official Korean Central stranges Agency on Tuesday carried a report through the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper blasting U policy toward the North as ''a policy of aggression and a policy of war to stifle'' the country

''Its basic goal is to strangle the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) through force,'' the article said. ''The U strategy toward the DPRK is aimed to swallow up the DPRK and state the whole of Korea below its domination.''

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