North Korea troops on high alert
Published: Tuesday | March 10, 2009
South Korean protesters with portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (right) and his alleged third son, Kim Jong Un, shout a slogan during a rally denouncing North Korea's recent military policy in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday.Kim Jong Il was unanimously re-elected to North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament, state media said yesterday, in elections closely watched for signs of a political shift or hints the autocratic leader is grooming a successor. - AP
SEOUL, South Korea (AP):
North Korea put its troops on alert and cut the last hotline to Seoul yesterday as the American and South Korean militaries began joint manoeuvres. The communist regime warned that even the slightest provocation could trigger war.
The North stressed that provocation would include any attempt to interfere with its impending launch of a satellite into orbit. United States (US) and Japanese officials suspect the launch is a cover for a test of a long-range attack missile and have suggested they might move to intercept the rocket.
"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," North Korea's military threatened in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. Any interception attempt will draw "a just, retaliatory strike," it said.
Nuclear programme
The North has been on a steady retreat from reconciliation since President Lee Myung-bak took office in the South a year ago. After Lee said the North must continue dismantling its nuclear programme if it wants aid, Pyongyang cut ties, suspended joint projects and stepped up its belligerent rhetoric.
"The danger of a military conflict is further increasing than ever before on the Korean Peninsula because of the sabre-rattling which involves armed forces huge enough to fight a war," the North's news agency warned, as Pyongyang put its armed forces on standby for combat.