SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea put its armed forces on standby Monday and threatened "a war" if anyone tries to shoot down what regional powers suspect is an imminent test-firing of a long-range missile.
Pyongyang also cut off a military hot line with the South, causing a complete shutdown of their border and stranding hundreds of South Koreans working in an industrial zone in the North Korean border city of Kaesong.
Monday's warning -- the latest barrage of threats from the communist regime -- came as U.S. and South Korean troops kicked off annual war games across the South, exercises the North has condemned as preparation for an invasion. Pyongyang last week threatened South Korean passenger planes flying near its airspace during the drills.
nalysts say the regime is trying to grab President Barack Obama's attention as his administration formulates its North Korea policy.
The North also indicated it was pushing ahead with plans to send a communications satellite into space, a provocative launch neighboring governments believe could be a cover for a long-range missile capable of reaching Alaska.
U.S. and Japanese officials have suggested they could shoot down a North Korean missile if necessary, further incensing Pyongyang.
"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," the general staff of the North's military said in a statement carried Monday by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Any interception will draw "a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds" of the U.S., Japan and South Korea, it said.
The North has ordered military personnel "fully combat ready," KCNA said in a separate dispatch.
Obama's special envoy on North Korea again urged Pyongyang not to fire a missile, which he said would be an "extremely ill-advised" move.
"Whether they describe it as a satellite launch or something else makes no difference" since both would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution banning the North from ballistic activity, Stephen Bosworth told reporters after talks with his South Korean counterpart. South
Korea's Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae downplayed the North's
threats as "rhetoric" but said the country's military was ready to deal
with any contingencies. Analysts say a
satellite or missile launch could occur late this month or in early
April when the North's new legislature, elected Sunday, is expected to
convene its first session to confirm Kim Jong Il as leader. Ties between the two Koreas have plunged since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office a year ago halting aid unless the North fulfills an international promise to dismantle its nuclear program. In retaliation, North Korea suspended the reconciliation process and key joint projects with Seoul, and has stepped up the stream of belligerence toward the South. Severing the military hot line for the duration of the 12-day joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises leaves the two Koreas without any means of communication at a time of heightened tensions. The
two Koreas use the hot line to exchange information about goods and
people crossing into Kaesong. Its suspension halted traffic and
stranded about 570 South Koreans who were working in Kaesong. About
80 had planned to return to the South on Monday but were stuck there
overnight since they cannot travel after nightfall. Earlier, some 700
South Koreans who intended to go to Kaesong on Monday were unable to
cross the border, the Unification Ministry said. All South Koreans in Kaesong are safe, the ministry said as it called on Pyongyang to restore the hot line immediately. The
two Koreas technically remain in a state of war since their three-year
conflict ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, in 1953. Hundreds
of thousands of troops are amassed on each side of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, making the Korean border one of the world's most heavily armed. The United States, which has 28,5000 troops in South Korea,
routinely holds military exercises with the South. Pyongyang routinely
condemns them as rehearsals for invasion despite assurances from Seoul
and Washington that the drills are defensive. The exercises, which will involve some 26,000 U.S. troops, an unspecified number of South Korean soldiers
and a U.S. aircraft carrier, are "not tied in any way to any political
or real world event," Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. troops,
said Monday.
www.chinaview.cn 2009-03-09 22:58:09 |
SEOUL, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. and South Korean military launched a massive joint military exercise on Monday amid Pyongyang 's strong opposition and repeated warnings, further heightening the tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
MILITARY DRILLS CONDUCTED AMID DPRK'S PROTEST
According to Chosun Daily, about 26,000 U.S. troops and over 50,000 South Korean troops will participate in the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise all over South Korea from March 9-20. The USS John C. Stennis nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and a total of seven U. S. Aegis destroyers will take part in the exercises.
Ahead of the exercises, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has repeatedly demanded the U.S. and South Korean military to cancel the exercises, saying the massive military drills impose grave threat on DPRK and "serve as a prelude to an invasion against the DPRK".
The U.S.-led United Nations Command and the DPRK military held general-level military talks last Monday and Friday respectively, to discuss measures easing the tensions on the Korean Peninsula. However, the negotiations failed to make significant progress as the DPRK urged to cancel the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises while the UNC side insisted to conduct the "defensive-oriented" annual drills.
DPRK WARNING OF WAR
In protest of the military exercises, the DPRK on Monday announced to cut off last military communications channel with South Korea and ordered its troops to be ready for a war against the U.S. and South Korea, several hours before the U.S. and South Korea kicked off their military exercises, with a warning of "merciless retaliatory blows" on the U.S. and South Korean troops in case of any invasion to DPRK.
The DPRK's army also warned that it will stage a war on the territories of the United States, Japan and South Korea if its satellite launch "for peaceful purpose" was intercepted.
Following the DPRK's decision of cutting off inter-Korean military communication channels and military warnings, the U.S. Forces Korea released a statement on the day to explain the ongoing exercises "are purely defensive in nature and have no connection to ongoing or current events."
South Korean Unification Ministry Spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun expressed regret over DPRK's latest measures and asked Pyongyang to take back its decision of cut off military communication channels. He also pledged to the South Korean people that the government will make efforts to ensure over 600 South Koreans to safely return from DPRK's inter-Korean industrial complex and tourist complex as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, South Korean Presidential Spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said the door towards inter-Korean dialogue "always remains open" to DPRK, asking Pyongyang to stop further provocations.
US ENVOY PROPOSES RESUMPTION OF SIX-PARTY TALKS
Local analysts said DPRK's latest warnings and measures are aimed at pressuring South Korea's Lee Myung-bak administration to change its hard-line policy toward Pyongyang, while pushing the Obama administration into bilateral talks.
Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special envoy on the DPRK, arrived here last Saturday to mediate the six-party talks on the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula. Upon his arrival in South Korea, he said the United States and the DPRK "are reaching out," adding the Washington wants dialogue with Pyongyang, which was regarded as a positive signal for the improvement of U.S.-DPRK ties.
Bosworth, who had already visited China and Japan before traveling to Seoul, said on Monday that U.S. wants an early resumption of the six-party talks.
"We are hopeful that we can see the resumption of the six-party process in the relatively near future," the U.S. diplomat said after meeting with South Korean officials, including South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and South Korea's top nuclear negotiator Wi Sung-lak in Seoul, respectively.
As to the bilateral contact between the U.S. and the DPRK, Bosworth dismissed worries that Obama's administration may put a higher priority on direct talks with Pyongyang than the six-party talks that also involve China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.
"We continue to regard the six-party process as the central element of our effort to continue with the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he said.
Although the heightening tensions on the peninsula might be developed into military confrontation or even bloody skirmishes, local analysts believed that, if the U.S. and the DPRK can sit at negotiation table and make progress in nuclear issues and bilateral affairs, the restrained inter-Korean ties and mounting tensions on the peninsula are hopeful to take a favorable turn.
North Korea has obviously become oxygen deprived. What are they thinking? We have an active military exercise in progress and they're going to rattle sabers?