Seoul Slams China Daily Article on Korean Emergency

The Foreign Ministry on Thursday protested against an editorial in China's state-run Global Times suggesting that Chinese people have nothing to fear from a war on the Korean Peninsula since the primary target will be South Korea.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said, "Anyone should refrain from causing unnecessary misunderstanding or undermining peace and security with hypothetical scenarios regarding the situation on the Korean Peninsula."

Titled "How to Read Jilin's Precaution Against Nuclear Attack," it said the primary target of a war on the Korean Peninsula will be South Korea and there is little chance of China being harmed.

"Even if a war erupts on the peninsula, it is South Korea, Japan and the U.S. bases in the Asia-Pacific that will likely be priority targets for North Korea," it said. "There is a slim chance that the U.S. or North Korea will intentionally launch military attacks at China as they have no grounds."

It claimed that "favorable" northwesterly winds in winter would blow any nuclear radiation toward South Korea.

The editorial was aimed at calming frayed nerves after a Jilin Daily report on how to take precautions against nuclear attack went viral on the Internet. But instead it seems to have poured oil on the flames.

A government mouthpiece, the Global Times was established in 1993 as a sister publication of the People's Daily.