North Korea threatens to abandon pact

By PAUL ECKERT

North Korea is threatening to abandon its commitment to the 1953 Korean War armistice if sanctions are imposed on it because of its suspected nuclear weapons ambitions.

War warnings and claims that the United States is poised to attack the North have been almost daily fare in Pyongyang's official media since the nuclear crisis flared late last year.

It was not clear whether the latest statement, from the North's Korean People's Army (KPA), broke that pattern or was more of the same.

Many people in South Korea - which has lived with the threat of a potential northern invasion for half a century - ignore the rhetoric and focus on everyday concerns.

"The KPA side will be left with no option but to take a decisive step to abandon its commitment to implement the Armistice Agreement as a signatory to it and free itself from the binding force of all its provisions, regarding the possible sanctions to be taken by the US side against the DPRK [North Korea]," said the North's army.

"If the US side continues violating and misusing the Armistice Agreement as it pleases, there will be no need for the DPRK to remain bound to the AA uncomfortably."



The Army statement was issued by the KPA mission at the border truce village of Panmunjom, 50km north of Seoul, as the crisis over North Korea's suspected drive to make atomic weapons entered the fifth month and a week before President-elect Roh Moo-hyun is inaugurated.

In Seoul, South Korea's Defence Ministry said no unusual moves by the North Koreans had been sighted and the comments appeared to be more of Pyongyang's sabre-rattling as it agitates for talks with Washington over the nuclear crisis.



The KPA said the United States was planning to bolster its military forces around the peninsula and to "conduct naval blockade operations which can be seen only between warring states ... and this is little short of an open declaration of war in the long run".



The armistice pact was signed in 1953 by China and North Korea on the communist side and by the United Nations Command on the side of the international community. South Korea is not a signatory.



The standoff over North Korea's suspected nuclear programme has been simmering since mid-October, when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted violating treaty commitments by pursuing a programme to enrich uranium.

Since then, North Korea has expelled UN nuclear inspectors, withdrawn from the treaty that aims to curb the global spread of nuclear weapons and said it was ready to restart a mothballed reactor capable of producing plutonium for bombs.

It says it intends only to produce electricity and that the nuclear row is a dispute with Washington that can be resolved only through two-way talks leading to a non-aggression treaty.

Washington favours multilateral talks and wants China and Russia - which have close ties to the North - to help in that process.

- REUTERS

Herald feature: North Korea