S. Korea, US upgrade surveillance status

SOUTH KOREA: South Korea and the United States upgraded their coordinated military surveillance status on Wednesday, a report said, ahead of an expected mid-range missile launch by North Korea.

The Combined Forces Command raised the “Watchcon” status from 3 to 2 reflecting indications of a “vital threat”, Yonhap said, citing a senior military official.

Watchcon 4 is in effect during normal peacetime, while Watchcon 3 reflects indications of an important threat. Watchcon 1 is used in wartime.

Pyongyang is believed to have moved two Musudan missiles to its east coast last week by rail and mounted them on mobile launchers. South Korean intelligence says the North has completed preparations for the expected missile test -- possibly to coincide with April 15 celebrations for the birthday of late founder Kim Il-Sung. Meanwhile, A key border crossing between North Korea and China been closed to tourist groups, a Chinese official said Wednesday as nuclear tensions mounted, but business travel was allowed to continue.

An official at the Dandong Border Office, who declined to give his name, told AFP: “Travel agencies are not allowed to take tourist groups to go there, since the North Korean government is now asking foreign people to leave. As far as I know, business people can enter and leave North Korea freely.”

Meanwhile, Undeterred by North Korea's apocalyptic threats of nuclear war, a daily convoy of tour coaches still happily wends its way to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) which separates the two Koreas.

For some foreign visitors, the hot rhetoric has even become a white-knuckle incentive to travel to the heavily fortified border, a major tourist attraction and a vestige of the 1950-53 Korean War. “It's getting a lot of attention around the world, and it's really exciting to be a part of that and see it first hand,” said Shan Shan Loh, a tourist from Malaysia. Luis Andrade, an engineer from Venezuela, was equally enthusiastic. “This is the closest I've been to a Cold War situation,” Andrade said. The main draw of the tour is Panmunjom, the abandoned border village where the armistice that ended the Korean War was signed and where guards from North and South now eyeball each other at close proximity.

AFP