Washington: A senior US defense official said Tuesday he was confident the United States would be allowed to use bases in Japan to launch military action in the event of conflict with North Korea.
“We are absolutely confident we would be able to use Japanese bases in response to a North Korean threat,” Wallace Gregson, the assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, told lawmakers.
The sinking in March of a South Korean warship, blamed on a North Korean torpedo, “did nothing to diminish Japanese concern about the North Korean threat,” Gregson told the House Armed Services Committee.
He said the Japanese “have suffered at the hands of North Korea” with its citizens kidnapped and attempts by North Korean vessels to infiltrate Japanese waters.
“I have no doubt that they are fully aware of the threat from North Korea and fully supportive of all the provisions of our treaty to support operations should they be necessary in Korea,” he said.
He had been asked if the United States could remain confident given Japanese reluctance on fulfilling a deal with Washington to relocate a US Marine base on the southern island of Okinawa.
