adminThe United States warned North Korea it was skating a “dangerous line” as South Korea remained on heightened alert for any missile test, that could start a whole new cycle of tensions in a region already on a hair-trigger.
The North’s state media focused its attention, however, on yesterday’s first anniversary of new leader Kim Jong-Un becoming head of the ruling Worker’s Party and next Monday’s birthday celebrations for late founder Kim Il-Sung.
The official party mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun praised Kim Jong-Un as the “No. 1 man of conviction and will” and credited him with the success of the North’s long range-rocket launch in December and February’s nuclear test.
“History has never seen any socialist leader like him,” the newspaper said.
The launch and test, along with the UN sanctions imposed for each, are at the core of the current crisis that has seen Pyongyang threaten nuclear strikes against the United States and its allies.
South Korean intelligence says the North has prepared two mid-range missiles for imminent launch from its east coast, despite warnings from ally China to avoid provocative moves at a time of soaring military tensions.
In apparent reference to its missiles, North Korea said its units were on standby for a launch.
“The powerful strike means of our revolutionary armed forces are on standby for launch with precise coordinates of targets input into warheads,” the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by state media.
If fired, they will turn enemy strongholds into “a sea of fire”, it said.
Although Pyongyang has not announced any launch, many observers believe it will take place during the build-up to the April 15 birthday anniversary.
State media said foreign delegations had already begun arriving in Pyongyang for the event, which is one of the most important dates on the North’s calendar.
The missile launch may also coincide with some high-profile visits to South Korea, with both US Secretary of State John Kerry and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Seoul this week.
Rasmussen held talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se yesterday and they agreed Pyongyang should halt its bellicose rhetoric and provocative actions, Yun’s office said.
Yonhap news agency quoted military sources as saying the North was moving multiple missiles around in an apparent bid to confuse outside intelligence-gatherers about its intentions.
“North Korea . . . with its bellicose rhetoric, its actions, has been skating very close to a dangerous line,” US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, South Korea yesterday called for negotiations with North Korea on the future of the Kaesong joint industrial zone, which Pyongyang has threatened to shut down permanently after suspending operations.
“Normalisation of the Kaesong industrial complex must be solved through dialogue,” the South’s Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-Jae told reporters.
“I urge North Korea to come to the dialogue table.”
Pyongyang announced the withdrawal of its 53 000 workers and the suspension of operations at Kaesong at the beginning of the week, as military tensions on the Korean peninsula soared.
A rare symbol of cross-border economic co-operation.
There are 123 South Korean companies operating in Kaesong, which lies 10 kilometres inside North Korea.
Turnover in 2012 was reported at US$469.5 million, with accumulated turnover since 2004 standing at $1.98 billion.
South Korea’s new President Park Geun-Hye described the suspension of operations as “very disappointing” but Pyongyang yesterday said her administration was personally responsible.
“Needless to say Kaesong industrial district will cease to exist should the Park Geun-Hye regime continue pursuing confrontation,” a spokesman for the North’s Bureau for Central Guidance to the Development of the Special Zone said.
“The current powerholder in the South can never be able to shake off responsibility for having Kaesong, which survived even the traitor Lee Myung-Bak’s term in office, all but closed.”
During her presidential campaign, Park had said she would be more flexible in dealing with the North than her predecessor Lee, who took a hardline stance towards Pyongyang. — AFP.
Online Reporter