Warns of war danger:
NKorea puts troops on alert
NKOREA: North Korea put its troops on alert and cut the last hot line
to Seoul on Monday as the American and South Korean militaries began
joint maneuvers. 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. U.S. 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.
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 program if it wants
aid, Pyongyang cut ties, suspended joint projects and stepped up its
belligerence rhetoric.
"The danger of a military conflict is further increasing than ever
before on the Korean Peninsula because of the saber 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.
Seoul,Tuesday, AP |