No Defense Against Bluster : But U.S. Patriot missiles might help Seoul with any incoming Scuds

One day after CIA Director R. James Woolsey alerted Congress that North Korea’s leaders were bringing their country to “a heightened state of military readiness,” the Clinton Administration said it is considering sending Patriot missiles to help defend South Korea and the 36,000 U.S. troops stationed there. That would be a prudent move, and the sooner accomplished the better.

The Patriot probably would be positioned to defend air fields and ports, facilities whose protection is vital in the event of a new conflict on the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang can be counted on to charge that this modest defensive augmentation is a deliberate provocation. It isn’t. The Patriot is an air defense weapon, designed to knock out incoming missiles. It is no threat to North Korea’s territory, only to any aggressive instincts.

The world was introduced to the Patriot two years ago when it was sent to defend Israel and Saudi Arabia against Scud missile attacks from Iraq. After-battle analyses determined that the Patriot, which had not been designed to defend population centers, did not perform as well as was initially claimed. Since then it has been improved. While not foolproof--no weapon is--it is thought to be more effective now in destroying or deflecting incoming missiles.

North Korea has plenty of missiles, including its own version of the Scud. The CIA believes it also has one or two crude nuclear devices, and Pyongyang seems hellbent on making more. This is what the tensions with Kim Il Sung’s Stalinist regime are all about.

Pyongyang refuses to permit the international inspection of its nuclear sites that the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty requires. Instead it issues dark threats about how it might react if efforts were made to force its compliance with the treaty. In these circumstances the United States and its South Korean ally are wise to look to their defenses. Pyongyang likes to bluster. It’s also capable of sudden and erratic behavior. Sending in the Patriots won’t deflate the bluster, but it could usefully affect the actions North Korea might be weighing.