|
North Korea on Thursday warned a physical clash with the South is "now only a matter of time."
The North's official Korean Central News Agency said "Inter-Korean political and military tension has reached the extreme. A physical clash remains only a matter of time." It claimed South Korean and U.S. troops are "concentrating their energy on reinforcing their combat capabilities and preparing for a war against the North."
The news agency enumerated South Korean military exercises and said the "warmongers' confrontational action" had brought relations to a point "where it is difficult to save the situation or to straighten things out."
Radio Pyongyang, which broadcasts propaganda for the South, said relations "have reached the worst crisis. In regions including the West Sea where the two sides face off against each other, a dangerous situation is being created where nobody knows when a military clash will occur." The station put the blame for tensions squarely on South Korea, which it said "is heightening tension by misjudging us and taking a more provocative attitude toward us."
A government official said the saber rattling was apparently aimed at attracting U.S. attention, coinciding as it does with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's arrival in Seoul on Thursday.
The Chosun Shinbo, a Pyongyang mouthpiece published in Japan, on Feb. 14 reported on Clinton's tour of South Korea, China and Japan. It said North Korea "will watch whether her first Asian diplomatic tour will be successful or not, using a criterion between dialogue and confrontation."
But other analysts say all this is part of a routine North Korean tactic to heighten military tension as South Korea's annual joint military exercises with the U.S. approach. They are scheduled for March 9-20.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
