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In March, GEN James D. Thurman, commander, U.N. Command /Combined Forces Command /U.S. Forces Korea, and Gen. Jung Seung-jo, chairman of the South Korean military's joint chiefs of staff, signed a military contingency plan that contains mutually agreed upon procedures and responses to counter future provocations and threats to the Republic of Korea by North Korea. The Combined Counter-Provocation Plan was signed on the third anniversary of the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship. South Korea maintains the ship was hit by a North Korean torpedo.
The plan also comes in response to recent belligerent rhetoric from North Korea, along with its nuclear testing and continued development of an international missile program. While details of the cooperative plan are classified, officials said it allows for an immediate, strong and decisive combined response to any North Korean provocation.
North Korea has continued its bellicose behavior. Angry over sanctions levied by the U.N. in response to a North Korean satellite launch and nuclear test, the country also reacted to joint South Korean-U.S. military drills that it said were preparations for a nuclear strike. North Korea abrogated an armistice ending the Korean War and issued a statement that its strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units had been placed in combat-ready posture aimed at targets on the U.S. mainland and military bases in South . Korea and the Pacific. North Korea has also increased the tension by cutting a military hotline with South Korea and threatening to launch missiles at Guam, Hawaii and the western United States.
Experts doubt that North Korea has the long-range capability to hit distant targets, and agreed that the rhetoric and aggression are probably empty threats. Nevertheless, a smaller provocation - such as a border skirmish - is possible. As North Korea's aggressive behavior increased, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that the United States will continue to make measured responses. "As they have ratcheted up their dangerous, bellicose rhetoric, [North Korea presents] a real and clear danger and threat," he said.
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