N Korea rolls back clock on ’53 armistice
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 28, 2009 00:00
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea launched a tirade yesterday against world powers threatening to punish it for conducting its second nuclear test, saying it was abandoning the truce that ended the Korean War and warning it could launch a military attack on the South.
The announcement came amid reports the secretive North, which outraged the international community with its bomb test Monday, was restarting work to produce more weapons-grade plutonium.
The isolated regime said through its official news agency that it will take military action if its ships are blocked.
"Those who provoke [North Korea] once will not be able to escape its unimaginable and merciless punishment," The Associated Press quoted North's official news agency as saying.
The North's anger was provoked by the South's decision to join a U.S.-led anti-proliferation initiative, established after the Sept. 11 attacks to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
The PSI, which now includes 95 nations, provides for the stopping of vessels to ensure they are not carrying weapons of mass destruction or the components to make them. The South announced it was joining on Tuesday.
The North said its military would "no longer be bound" by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War Ğ in which the United States fought on the side of the South Ğ because Washington had drawn its "puppet" Seoul into the PSI. With no binding cease-fire, it said, "the Korean Peninsula will go back to a state of war."
Conflict unlikely
But analysts played down the likelihood of a full-scale conflict between North and South Korea but said clashes near the sea border were possible.
South Korea's defense ministry said no reinforcements were being sent to the region. "The military is maintaining its defense posture as strongly as usual," a spokesman told AFP.
Meanwhile, South Korea's mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported yesterday that U.S. spy satellites detected signs of steam at the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex, an indication that it may have started reprocessing nuclear fuel.
The report, which could not be confirmed, quoted an unidentified government official. South Korea's Yonhap news agency also had a similar report.
The move would be a major setback for efforts aimed at getting North Korea to disarm. North Korea had stopped reprocessing fuel rods as part of an international deal. In 2007, it agreed to disable the Yongbyon reactor in exchange for aid and demolished a cooling tower at the complex.
The North has about 8,000 spent fuel rods which, if reprocessed, could allow it to harvest 6 to 8 kilograms of plutonium Ğ enough to make at least one nuclear bomb, experts said. North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for at least a half dozen atomic bombs.
The isolated regime said through its official news agency that it will take military action if its ships are blocked.
"Those who provoke [North Korea] once will not be able to escape its unimaginable and merciless punishment," The Associated Press quoted North's official news agency as saying.
The North's anger was provoked by the South's decision to join a U.S.-led anti-proliferation initiative, established after the Sept. 11 attacks to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
The PSI, which now includes 95 nations, provides for the stopping of vessels to ensure they are not carrying weapons of mass destruction or the components to make them. The South announced it was joining on Tuesday.
The North said its military would "no longer be bound" by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War Ğ in which the United States fought on the side of the South Ğ because Washington had drawn its "puppet" Seoul into the PSI. With no binding cease-fire, it said, "the Korean Peninsula will go back to a state of war."
Conflict unlikely
But analysts played down the likelihood of a full-scale conflict between North and South Korea but said clashes near the sea border were possible.
South Korea's defense ministry said no reinforcements were being sent to the region. "The military is maintaining its defense posture as strongly as usual," a spokesman told AFP.
Meanwhile, South Korea's mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported yesterday that U.S. spy satellites detected signs of steam at the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex, an indication that it may have started reprocessing nuclear fuel.
The report, which could not be confirmed, quoted an unidentified government official. South Korea's Yonhap news agency also had a similar report.
The move would be a major setback for efforts aimed at getting North Korea to disarm. North Korea had stopped reprocessing fuel rods as part of an international deal. In 2007, it agreed to disable the Yongbyon reactor in exchange for aid and demolished a cooling tower at the complex.
The North has about 8,000 spent fuel rods which, if reprocessed, could allow it to harvest 6 to 8 kilograms of plutonium Ğ enough to make at least one nuclear bomb, experts said. North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for at least a half dozen atomic bombs.