Seoul, Pyongyang stay on high alert
Source: Agencies |
May 27, 2010, Thursday
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NORTH Korea threatened yesterday to block cross-border traffic and blow up any South Korean loudspeakers blasting propaganda northward as tensions soared over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
The deterioration came as United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Seoul.
She had just completed a three-nation Asian tour, including China, that was dominated by the March 26 sinking blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack.
"This was an unacceptable provocation by North Korea, and the international community has a responsibility and a duty to respond," Clinton said after talks with South Korean leaders.
A team of international investigators concluded last week that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore apart the 1,200-ton Cheonan off the west coast, killing 46 South Korean sailors.
South Korea began taking punitive steps on Tuesday against North Korea including slashing trade, resuming propaganda warfare and barring Pyongyang's cargo ships.
Those were seen as the strongest it could implement short of military action.
North Korea flatly denies it caused the sinking and has warned that retaliation would lead to war.
On Tuesday, North Korea announced it was cutting all relations with South Korea, starting "all-out counterattacks" against South Korea's psychological warfare operations and barring Seoul ships and airliners from passing through its territory.
Yesterday North Korea cut off some cross-border communication links and expelled eight South Korean officials from a joint industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.
North Korea's military also issued a statement warning it would "totally ban" the passage of South Korean personnel and vehicles to an inter-Korean zone in the western coastal area, apparently referring to Kaesong, if South Korea did not stop its psychological warfare.
It did not mention another border crossing on the eastern side of the peninsula, which remained open.
It said it would shoot at and "blow up" any loudspeakers South Korea installed at the border. Seoul dismantled such devices six years ago.
It resumed radio broadcasts on Monday into North Korea and said loudspeakers would be reinstalled within weeks.
In Pyongyang, army generals vowed to retaliate against South Korea.
"We will never tolerate the slightest provocations of our enemies, and will answer to that with all-out war," said Major General Pak Chan Su, a Korean War veteran, according to APTN in Pyongyang.
"This is the firm standpoint of our People's Army."
However, North Korea still allowed South Korean workers to cross the border to enter the Kaesong complex yesterday, according to the Unification Ministry.
South Korea's military said yesterday there were no signs of unusual activity by North Korean troops.
The deterioration came as United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Seoul.
She had just completed a three-nation Asian tour, including China, that was dominated by the March 26 sinking blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack.
"This was an unacceptable provocation by North Korea, and the international community has a responsibility and a duty to respond," Clinton said after talks with South Korean leaders.
A team of international investigators concluded last week that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore apart the 1,200-ton Cheonan off the west coast, killing 46 South Korean sailors.
South Korea began taking punitive steps on Tuesday against North Korea including slashing trade, resuming propaganda warfare and barring Pyongyang's cargo ships.
Those were seen as the strongest it could implement short of military action.
North Korea flatly denies it caused the sinking and has warned that retaliation would lead to war.
On Tuesday, North Korea announced it was cutting all relations with South Korea, starting "all-out counterattacks" against South Korea's psychological warfare operations and barring Seoul ships and airliners from passing through its territory.
Yesterday North Korea cut off some cross-border communication links and expelled eight South Korean officials from a joint industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.
North Korea's military also issued a statement warning it would "totally ban" the passage of South Korean personnel and vehicles to an inter-Korean zone in the western coastal area, apparently referring to Kaesong, if South Korea did not stop its psychological warfare.
It did not mention another border crossing on the eastern side of the peninsula, which remained open.
It said it would shoot at and "blow up" any loudspeakers South Korea installed at the border. Seoul dismantled such devices six years ago.
It resumed radio broadcasts on Monday into North Korea and said loudspeakers would be reinstalled within weeks.
In Pyongyang, army generals vowed to retaliate against South Korea.
"We will never tolerate the slightest provocations of our enemies, and will answer to that with all-out war," said Major General Pak Chan Su, a Korean War veteran, according to APTN in Pyongyang.
"This is the firm standpoint of our People's Army."
However, North Korea still allowed South Korean workers to cross the border to enter the Kaesong complex yesterday, according to the Unification Ministry.
South Korea's military said yesterday there were no signs of unusual activity by North Korean troops.
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