SEOUL, June 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz warned North Korea Monday that it would face an "immediate and devastating" response if it pursues aggression on the Korean peninsula.
Wolfowitz, in a news conference at the end of his two-day visit to Seoul, also said the proposed realignment of 37,000 American troops stationed in South Korea would be intended to enhance its readiness and defense against North Korean threats.
"Our response to aggression will be united, immediate, and devastatingly effective," he said, urging North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.
He admitted the U.S. intelligence about North Korea's nuclear capability is "imperfect," but said his administration takes seriously Pyongyang's assertions it has atomic weapons.
"We have some things that can verify what they (North Koreans) say. We don't know everything," Wolfowitz said. "Certainly what we know suggests that we should take what they're saying very seriously," he said.
"The fact that we can't give a definitive answer underscores the fact that what we really need here is a verifiable end to whatever nuclear program that they do have," Wolfowitz said.
Earlier on the day, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun also said his country had no concrete proof that North Korea has already atomic weapons.
But a senior U.S. congressman, who just returned Seoul from a trip to Pyongyang, said he was told by North Koreans that they had almost completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods, a move that could yield several atomic bombs within months.
"They admitted to having just about completed the reprocessing of 8,000 rods," said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., who led a congressional delegation that visited North Korea for three days. "They admitted to an effort to expand their nuclear production program," he told a separate news conference in Seoul.
Wolfowitz confirmed an $11 billion plan for the U.S. forces in South Korea to build up their war capability over the next three years, saying the plan will enhance their deterrent against North Korea.
The Pentagon's No. 2 man also said he had requested the Seoul government increase its defense budgets to enhance the role of the South Korean military in protecting the security on the Korean peninsula.
Wolfowitz said he also told South Korea's Defense Minister Cho Young-kil that the U.S. Forces Korea would be restructured over the next two years as scheduled. The realignment will include the 2nd Infantry Division, some 15,000 troops based close to the heavily fortified border with North Korea, he said.
"We want to align our forces including the 2nd Infantry Division so that they can be effective from the beginning," he said.
But he dismissed security concerns here that the relocation of front-line U.S. bases would weaken their deterrence capabilities.
"The essence of what we're trying to do is to make sure that the forces we have here on the peninsula can respond quickly and immediately even before reinforcements arrive if there were ever to be an attack," Wolfowitz said.
Upon arriving in South Korea Sunday, Wolfowitz traveled a U.S. front-line military base, 2.4 miles from the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.
Wolfowitz, who is due to leave for Japan later Monday, is the most senior Pentagon official to visit South Korea since the Bush administration took office two years ago.
