N.K. threatens to withdraw from '53 Armistice

[Timber Loftis]

North Korea Threatens to Withdraw From '53 Accord
By JAMES BROOKE

SEOUL, South Korea, Tuesday, Feb. 18 — North Korea's military threatened today to abandon its commitment to the 1953 Korean War armistice if the United States moves to impose penalties like a naval blockade for its suspected nuclear weapons program.

The North's state-run news media has kept the nation near a war hysteria since the nuclear crisis flared up last fall, and it was not clear if the latest statement marked a real change in policy. But the warning came from the nation's all-powerful military, the Korean People's Army.

"The K.P.A. 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 U.S. side against the D.P.R.K.," the army statement said using the initials of North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

On Monday, The New York Times reported that Bush administration officials were drawing up detailed contingency plans for penalties, including the interception of North Korean ships carrying arms and missiles for export.

"If the U.S. side continues violating and misusing the Armistice Agreement as it pleases, there will be no need for the D.P.R.K. to remain bound to the A.A. uncomfortably," said the statement published by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

The statement was issued by the army mission at the border truce village of Panmunjom, 30 miles north of Seoul, the South's capital. In Seoul this morning, the South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said no unusual moves by the North Koreans were sighted, telling Reuters, "Nothing has been going on."

The North Korean military, long a brake on easing relations with the South, is by far the most important institution in the impoverished nation. North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, has a background in theater and in spy work. To cultivate the military, he reportedly installed 1,000 generals and imposed on the nation an "army first policy," channeling about one quarter of national spending to the military. With 1.1 million people, or 10 percent of the population, in arms, North Korea is the world's most militarized nation.

Last weekend, in North Korea's southeast border region, soldiers appeared well fed, well clothed and omnipresent. Stern, unsmiling sentries were posted every 50 yards along a 10-mile fenced-in route used by South Korean tour buses. The occasional sight of a broken-down jeep or soldiers pushing bicycles down muddy lanes indicated that their equipment was poor.

On Friday, at a separate border point, a North Korean officer accused the United States of moving weapons into the southern sector of the Demilitarized Zone.

"We have seen armored cars and tanks inside the DMZ, which is a violation of the armistice because only officers can carry side arms inside the DMZ," the officer, Maj. Kim Kwang Kil, told a Reuters reporter who visited the North Korean side of Panmunjom. "They have increased the number of soldiers, and they are carrying heavy weapons."

American officials have said there has been no change in the positions of the 37,000 American troops on the peninsula. In Congressional testimony last week, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld raised the possibility of shifting American forces away from the zone and removing some of the American troops stationed in the South.

On Monday, the United States and South Korea announced annual bilateral military exercises in the South. The allies said they would hold their exercises from March 19 to 26. A related drill will be held from March 4 to April 2, they said. American officials here said the allies had told the North about the war games.

The North invariably protests the exercises, but today's statement was directed at the prospect of penalties.

The statement 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 the warring states during the war, and this is little short of an open declaration of war in the long run."

[Thoran]

They're a desperate country. IMO we're doing the right thing, although it could get ugly before it gets better. Right now N.K. is faced with a decision... they're not getting free food and energy anymore, so they're blustering to try to get Bush to cave like Clinton did. Of course G.W. has not proven to be particularly prone to this weakness, so N.K. is rather rapidly raising the stakes. Of course, they're running out of things to threaten... at which time we'll find out if they've got the balls to actually start doing something besides bluster. All her neighbors think she's blowing hot air, so I'd be inclined to agree and wait it out. Eventually she'll have to start redirecting the 30% of her GDP that's going to her "Million Man Army" or risk open rebellion.

In either case, we've got her by the short hairs and if we stick to our guns I don't think N.K. will be much of a threat in another year or two... one way or another. It's for certain that giving them what they want and allowing them to continue their WMD development isn't the right answer.

[Wutang]

I doubt NK will do anything. Once they find out that sabre rattling isn't going to put food on the table maybe they'll actually try to be more friendly and considerate.

I do hope though that the US isn't going to cave into their demands like what Clinton did.

NK should feel embarassed about the kind of language they are spewing out.

But I hear that Kim Jong Il loves American movies and the Internet. The luxuries he enjoys he denies his people.

Something has got to give soon. The people there are starving. The army is probably starving too. Implosion is imminent.

The whole irony is that there are actually a lot of American flags in NK. On the bags of wheat and food that they get from the US.

But there is always a chance that NK will want to go out in a blaze of glory.

[ 02-19-2003, 01:01 AM: Message edited by: Wutang ]

[johnny]

Kim yung il loves the internet ? Do you think he visits gamingforums ?

[Ronn_Bman]

He prefers eBay and Daffy Duck sites.

[Wutang]

Kim probably had a very sheltered life with no one around him except the old politburo and military generals who just want status quo and to keep power for themselves.

I think he never grew up past adolescence, so yes he might be visiting gaming sites and babe sites. Hmmm I visit those sites too. Maybe I have something in common with Kim...how shocking

I wonder if he watches "American Idol" or "Joe Millionaire" too on his satellite TV which I'm sure he has.

I noticed that Kim doesn't make any public speeches which is very odd.

[ 02-19-2003, 04:24 PM: Message edited by: Wutang ]

[Ronn_Bman]

There has already been a separate post about it, but the NK jet crossing into SK airspace is directly related to this original post.

NK wants to make it clear that they're seriously considering dropping the cease-fire agreement.

[ 02-20-2003, 07:13 PM: Message edited by: Ronn_Bman ]

[Wutang]

Well NK is in a lose-lose situation if they do completely scrap it.

then again, NK has been chipping away at the armistice for several years now.

But if NK does launch first strike, I seriously doubt China and Russia will come in as allies like they did in the 1950's.