N.KOREA MISSILE & NUCLEAR TESTS: Troops on higher alert

May 28, 2009

N.KOREA MISSILE & NUCLEAR TESTS

Troops on higher alert

		US and South Korean soldiers in a joint military exercise on March 10, 2009. The two country?s troops went on higher alert on Thursday. -- PHOTO: AFP

SEOUL - SOUTH Korean and US troops on Thursday went on higher alert after North Korea announced it is scrapping the armistice in force on the peninsula, Seoul's defence ministry said.

'As of 7.15 am Thursday (2215 GMT on Wednesday, 6.15am Singapore time), the US-South Korea Combined Forces Command upgraded Watch Conditions by a notch to Stage Two,' the Seoul defence ministry said in a statement.

'Surveillance over the North will be stepped up, with more aircraft and personnel mobilised,' said ministry spokesman Won Tae-Jae.

North Korea said on Wednesday it was abandoning the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and warned it could launch a military attack on the South, two days after testing an atomic bomb for the second time.

It also threatened military action on against US and South Korean warships plying the waters near the Koreas' disputed maritime border, raising the spectre of a naval clash just days after the regime's underground nuclear test.

Pyongyang, reacting angrily to Seoul's decision to join an international programme to intercept ships suspected of aiding nuclear proliferation, called the move tantamount to a declaration of war.

'Now that the South Korean puppets were so ridiculous as to join in the said racket and dare declare a war against compatriots,' North Korea is 'compelled to take a decisive measure,' the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by state media.

North Korea's latest belligerence comes as the UN Security Council debates how to punish the regime for testing a nuclear bomb on Monday in what President Barack Obama called a 'blatant violation' of international law.

Ambassadors from the five permanent veto-wielding council members - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - as well as Japan and South Korea were working out the details of a new resolution. -- AFP, AP

http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=29770.1

N.KOREA NUCLEAR & MISSILE TESTS: Military strike warning

May 27, 2009

N.KOREA NUCLEAR & MISSILE TESTS

Military strike warning

North Korea warned of a possible military response after South Korea joined an anti-proliferation exercise. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

SEOUL - NORTH Korea said on Wednesday it was abandoning the truce that ended the Korean war and warned it could launch a military attack, deepening tensions two days after testing an atomic bomb for the second time.

Show of Strength Analysts say Kim Jong Il, 67, is likely carrying out the shows of strength to reassert his control in the impoverished hermit state. He reportedly had a stroke in August, which has renewed questions about who might succeed him. 'Kim is trying (with the nuclear test) to impress the cadres and the elite in general... to convince powerholders that his family is the one that should be ruling the country,' Peter Beck of American University in Washington told AFP on Tuesday. ... more N.Korea fires 5 missiles since nuke test SEOUL - NORHT Korea has test-fired five short-range missiles since conducting a nuclear test two days ago, South Korea's defence ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry said the North fired two missiles on Monday - one fewer than earlier reported - and three on Tuesday. It had previously refused to confirm media reports of the launches. ... more

The strongly worded announcement came amid reports the secretive North, which outraged the international community with its bomb test on Monday, was also restarting nuclear fuel work that could make plutonium for an atomic weapon.

Defying international condemnation, the regime of Kim Jong-Il said it could no longer guarantee the safety of US and South Korean ships off its west coast and that the Korean peninsula was veering back to a state of war.

'Those who have provoked us will face unimaginable merciless punishment,' the statement on the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, blaming Washington and Seoul for the latest turn of events.

The North's anger was provoked by the South's decision to join a US-led international security initiative, established after the September 11 attacks, to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

South Korea joined the so-called PSI after the North Monday carried out a second nuclear bomb test which was far more powerful than the first test in October 2006.

The PSI, which includes more than 90 nations, provides for the stopping of vessels to ensure they are not carrying weapons of mass destruction or the components to make them.

'Any tiny hostile acts against our republic, including the stopping and searching of our peaceful vessels... will face an immediate and strong military strike in response,' the North Korean statement said.

It said its military would 'no longer be bound' by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean war - in which the United States fought on the side of the South - because Washington had drawn Seoul into the PSI.

With no binding ceasefire, it said, 'the Korean peninsula will go back to a state of war.' The North has taken an increasingly harder line with the international community in recent months, testing a long-range rocket in April, several missiles over the past few days and its second-ever nuclear test on Monday. -- AFP

http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=29746.1