South Korean Army soldiers wearing traditional military uniform prepare today for a welcoming ceremony for U.S. Pacific Commander Adm. Timothy Keating at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, South Korea. The new top U.S. military commander in the Pacific is in Asia for talks with South Korean officers to improve bilateral military cooperation and security of the Korean peninsular. Lee Jin-man | Associated Press

Adm. Timothy Keating is visiting South Korea for the first time since he assumed control of the U.S. Pacific Command last month. He was expected to discuss the U.S.-South Korea alliance with Korean leaders and be briefed by U.S. commanders on the North Korean threat and the status of U.S. forces on the peninsula.

"The fact that there is a surge in the Middle East causes us to perhaps make accommodations in response plans that we would employ," Keating told The Associated Press while flying to South Korea from Japan during a weeklong Asia-Pacific tour.

"I'm supremely confident in the U.S. military's ability to respond to any aggression by North Korea," he added.

North Korea alarmed the world in October when it conducted its first-ever underground nuclear test. After a 13-month boycott of nuclear talks, the North agreed in February with U.S. and regional powers on initial steps to disarm.

However, the impoverished communist nation looked likely to miss a weekend deadline for shutting down its nuclear reactor because of a dispute with the U.S. over the release of $25 million in frozen North Korean funds in a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty — leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.

The U.S. has about 28,000 troops, including 19,000 soldiers, in South Korea. The South Korean army has some 690,000 troops — including about 560,000 soldiers — ready to fight if the North invades.

The U.S. is counting on South Korea's army to deter the North and, if war erupts, to play a major role in defeating the North.

North Korea has more than 1.2 million troops, including some 1 million ground forces. Analysts say it is hampered by old equipment but still has 13,000 artillery tubes, including hundreds capable of showering Seoul with chemical weapons.

U.S. light infantry troops around the Pacific, such as Marines on Okinawa in southern Japan and soldiers based in Hawai'i, are expected to provide backup if fighting erupts. Many of those troops, however, are already deployed or gearing up to return to Iraq and Afghanistan.

For example, some 7,000 soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division based at Schofield Barracks in Hawai'i are currently in Iraq. On Wednesday, they received word their yearlong deployment would be extended 90 days.

The division has another roughly 4,000 soldiers in the 2nd Brigade in Hawai'i, but that unit is training to become a Stryker Brigade and is not expected to be certified for deployment until late this year.