Some Crews Alerted for N. Korea

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has alerted bomber crews that they could be sent to the Pacific -- an apparent message to North Korea that the United States remains prepared for military action in the region even as it focuses on a possible war with Iraq.

Pentagon officials stressed Monday that no decision on any deployment had been reached, but they noted that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was considering a range of options that would bolster the U.S. presence in the Pacific.

The aim, one official said, would be “to turn up the knob a touch on the burner, to make sure it’s visible, but not aggressive or provocative.”

The steps reflect rising tensions between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang’s apparent efforts to restart its nuclear weapons program.

U.S. satellite photos taken last week show fresh activity around a key nuclear storage facility. Intelligence officials said the images show trucks moving near the storage site, prompting fears that North Korea was moving spent fuel rods that could yield plutonium needed for bombs.

The United States has 38,000 troops stationed in South Korea and additional sea and land forces throughout the Far East.

But the plans under consideration at the Pentagon would place additional B-1 and B-52 bombers on the island of Guam, nearly 2,000 miles southeast of North Korea.

The Pentagon said it had put some military personnel on notice that they could be deployed to the Pacific. One official called it a “pack-your-bags” warning.

The Pentagon is taking steps to maintain its naval presence in the Pacific as it continues to send warships to the Persian Gulf.

Officials at the U.S. Pacific Command have asked to have another aircraft carrier assigned to the region if the Kitty Hawk, which is based in Yokosuka, Japan, is deployed to the Gulf, a Defense Department official said.

The United States has already deployed four carriers to the Gulf region, but the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military planning for Iraq, has asked for a fifth. The Kitty Hawk is considered a likely candidate because it is closer to the Gulf than other vessels in the Navy’s fleet.

Another Pentagon official said the naval maneuvering was designed to “maintain the status quo” in the Pacific and “not to try to escalate or move to a higher condition of readiness.”

A spokesman for the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, based at Pearl Harbor, said the fleet had received no orders to deploy any of its warships to the Korean peninsula region.

The United States has been treading a delicate diplomatic path with North Korea.

State Department and White House officials have been careful in recent days to say that the United States has no intention of attacking or invading North Korea.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell repeated that message Friday and said he intended to make it clear in communications with Pyongyang.

At the same time, U.S. officials do not want to take the military option entirely off the table.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Monday that President Bush believes the standoff with North Korea can be resolved peacefully.

“That doesn’t mean the United States won’t have contingencies and make certain those contingencies are viable,” Fleischer said.

In his State of the Union address last year, Bush included North Korea in an “axis of evil” with Iraq and Iran.

But while the White House’s stated policy of taking preemptive action against a threat is exemplified by its push to confront Iraq, the administration has so far relied on diplomatic pressure in relations with North Korea.

Talks also continued elsewhere, with the International Atomic Energy Agency saying Monday that it would meet on the issue Feb. 12.

White House officials say North Korea may already have a small number of nuclear weapons. Many believe that North Korea would react to a surgical strike on its nuclear program by launching an attack on South Korea, whose capital, Seoul, is only about 35 miles south of the demilitarized zone separating the countries.

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Times staff writer Esther Schrader contributed to this report.