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North Korea Threatens Pre-emptive Attack on U.S. Troops
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South
Koreans protest against a possible U.S. attack on the Korean
Peninsula
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SEOUL,
February 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - North Korea has warned
it would launch a pre-emptive attack on United States forces if
Washington sends more troops to the Korean peninsula, the BBC said
Thursday, February 6.
The
threat to strike first against U.S. troops in the region came from
North Korea’s foreign ministry deputy director, Ri Pyong-Gap, in
response to U.S. moves to reinforce its military presence around the
Korean peninsula, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
U.S.
officials have said the Pentagon ordered 24 B-52 and B-1 bombers to
prepare for deployment in the western Pacific to back up U.S. forces
in South Korea.
They
say the reinforcements would help signal that a possible war with Iraq
was not distracting the United States from a nuclear stand-off with
North Korea.
North
Korea’s 1.2-million-strong armed forces have been on alert since the
crisis escalated in December when the Stalinist country expelled
monitors from the United Nations’ atomic agency.
Speaking
to a visiting BBC correspondent in Pyongyang, Ri said his government
was becoming increasingly alarmed at signs that Washington planned to
bolster its military firepower in South Korea.
North
Korea will regard such actions as an invasion or attack against it, he
said, adding that Pyongyang would not just sit and wait and could
decide to strike first if necessary.
North
Korea vowed to respond to any U.S. strikes against its nuclear
facilities with “merciless retaliation” as tension mounted over
its announcement that it has restarted a mothballed nuclear reactor.
“Any
U.S. strikes against our nuclear facilities reserved for peaceful use
will ignite an all-out war,” Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of the
North’s ruling Workers Party, said in a Korean-language commentary
monitored by the South's Yonhap news “We
will answer U.S. pre-emptive strikes with merciless retaliation and
war with war.”
Tension
in the Streets of Pyongyang
Meanwhile,
tension over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions mounted Thursday after
Pyongyang’s announcement that a nuclear plant capable of making
plutonium for nuclear weapons had begun producing electricity.
The
announcement came as Washington stepped up war preparations against
Iraq, with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell unveiling a dossier on
Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction at the U.N.
The
United States branded North Korea’s announcement “blackmail”
after Pyongyang justified the move to restart its reactor as vital for
the energy-starved nation.
The
BBC’s online news service said tensions on the streets of Pyongyang
are tangible.
Air
raid drills and blackouts are becoming twice-daily rituals and huge
posters calling for courage in the fight ahead cover billboards and
walls.
North
Korea’s Announcement Is Blackmail: U.S.
In
Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, referring to a
“dangerous situation,” said North Korea would be making a mistake
if it felt it could exploit U.S. preoccupation with Iraq.
“To
the extent the world thinks the United States is focused on problems
in Iraq, it’s conceivable someone could make a mistake and believe
that’s an opportunity for them to take an action which they
otherwise would have avoided,” he told members of the U.S. Congress.
The
United States branded North Korea’s announcement “blackmail”
after Pyongyang justified the move to restart its reactor as vital for
the energy-starved nation.
South
Korea’s president-elect Roh Moo-Hyun said he would prevent a war on
the Korean peninsula.
“I
am going to assure peace in this nation. That’s the commitment I
make and at any rate I am going to prevent a war on this peninsula,”
Roh told a business meeting in Incheon airport.
North
Trying to Attract U.S. Attention
A
government official in Seoul said the North’s step was engineered to
steal the spotlight as Powell addressed the United Nations on Iraq.
He
predicted that North Korea would take further steps to draw U.S.
attention to its demands for talks on its own terms with Washington to
resolve the four-month-old nuclear crisis. “Soon they may start
test-firing missiles again,” he said. “Something the Japanese are
rightly worried about.”
In
Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Japan would continue to
urge the Stalinist state to ease its confrontational stance. “As
before, we want North Korea to stop what it is doing with regard to
the nuclear problem, while maintaining contact with South Korea and
the United States,” he said.
Kyodo
news reported that Japan was considering sending two Aegis-equipped
destroyers to the Sea of Japan to detect possible missile test
launches by North Korea. A defense agency spokesman however denied any
such immediate plans.
North
Korea, which according to the United States already possesses one or
two nuclear weapons, stunned the world in 1998 by test-firing a
long-range missile that flew over Japan.
Last
year Pyongyang agreed to extend a test-firing moratorium beyond 2003
but has hinted in official media reports that it could easily change
its mind.
In
Washington, officials demanded North Korea reverse its decision to
restart the reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear plant north of Pyongyang.
Under
a now defunct 1994 accord with Washinton, Pyongyang agreed to freeze
the Yongbyon complex in return for the supply of heavy fuel oil and
the construction of two light-water reactors said to be tamper-free.
Energy-poor
North Korea maintains that it is restarting its nuclear activities to
make up for a shortfall in energy supplies after a Washington-led
coalition cut off fuel shipments late last year.
The
Pentagon has ordered two dozen long-range bombers - an equal number of
B-1s and B-52s - to prepare to deploy to Guam as a check against North
Korea while it masses forces in the Gulf for a possible war against
Iraq, U.S. officials have said.
Rumsfeld
said North Korea could add to the one or two nuclear weapons it is
currently assessed to have by making nuclear material for six to eight
more in a relatively short period of time.
“Our
forces are arranged around the world - not in a threatening way but in
a way that demonstrates that we do in fact have the capability to act
in more than one theater at one time,” he said.
U.S.
officials reported that spy satellites over North Korea had detected
what appeared to be trucks suspected of moving some of 8,000 spent
fuel rods out of storage at the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
Bush
aides have said they are willing to talk to North Korea - but only
about how it can end its twin nuclear programs, which sparked the
crisis.
The
United States has been seeking to bring the issue before the UN, which
could impose sanctions, an act Pyongyang says it would view as a
declaration of war.
South
Korea opposes the imposition of any sanctions against North Korea and
has stressed the need for time to allow diplomacy to work.
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