YONHAP NEWS

(3rd LD) S. Korea says N. Korea's warning on flights against int'l law inhumane

   By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, March 6 (Yonhap) -- The Seoul government blasted North Korea on Friday for threatening the safety of South Korean flights in its airspace, calling the threat "inhumane" and urging Pyongyang to immediately withdraw the statement.

   "To militarily threaten the normal operations of civil airplanes not only violates international rules but is also an inhumane act that can never be justified," said Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun.

   Tension rose sharply on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea said Thursday night it is "compelled to declare that security cannot be guaranteed for South Korean civil airplanes" in its airspace.

   North Korea blamed a joint military exercise by South Korea and the United States set to begin next week, saying it may lead to an actual war.

   Washington has expressed dismay at the latest development. U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid called the threats "distinctly unhelpful."

   North Korea and the U.S.-led United Nations Command, which monitors the cease-fire that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War, met Friday for second round of general-grade talks this week. In their earlier session on Monday -- the first such meeting in over six years -- Pyongyang demanded that the annual joint drill be canceled.

   The U.N. command is backed by 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.

   Pyongyang's latest warning prompted South Korean airliners to reroute flights, but U.S. carriers and other foreign jets were not mentioned in the North Korean warning and will likely remain unaffected, said the unification ministry spokesman.

   North Korea opened airspace to South Korean planes in 1997, when the Koreas reached an aviation accord with arbitration by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

   Since then, South Korean flights have made detours to avoid North Korean airspace only once -- when the North test-launched a long-range missile in July 2006.

   South Korean commercial ships will also avoid areas near North Korean waters in the East Sea, taking circuitous route through Japanese waters instead, officials said.

   South Korea and the U.S. are scheduled to begin their annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drill on Monday and will finish Friday the following week. The allies say the war drill is purely defensive, but Pyongyang views it as a preparation for an invasion.

   The U.S. plans to mobilize a nuclear-powered carrier and 26,000 troops during the drill to test its ability to quickly deploy forces should North Korea invade.

   Pyongyang noted that the large-scale war drills are "the first of their kind since the emergence of the new administration in the United States," in what appeared to a message to U.S. President Barack Obama. North Korea has been hoping to mend ties with the new U.S. administration after eight years of largely combative relations with the George W. Bush White House.

   "I do not think that North Koreans will actually shoot down a plane," said Andrei Lankov, a North Korea specialist from Russia.

   "They hope to get attention. They are afraid that the U.S. will start ignoring them, so they will be unable to extract aid and concessions they hope to get," he said.

   In another fallout from the escalating tension, energy aid to North Korea will likely be suspended soon as the six-party nuclear talks remain stalled, according to Seoul officials.

   When China completes shipping its share of the 1 million tons of fuel oil promised to North Korea under a 2007 aid-for-denuclearization deal, no additional aid is likely to be sent from South Korea or Japan. The U.S. and Russia have already sent their respective shares of 200,000 tons of fuel.

   The six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear program broke down in December due to a dispute over how to inspect North Korea's nuclear facilities. The new U.S. envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, is set to arrive in Seoul on Saturday to discuss the nuclear talks after stopping in Beijing and Tokyo.

   Military sources here said "no unusual activity" has been detected along the border since the latest threat, but they added the warning may be a sign that North Korea is trying to clear its airspace before testing its suspected ballistic missile.

   North Korea said last month it is preparing to launch a satellite. U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials believe Pyongyang actually intends to test-fire its long-range Taepodong-2 missile, which is theoretically capable of striking the U.S. West Coast.

   Baek Seung-joo, a North Korea analyst at the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the most recent warning should be considered "psychological warfare."

   "It could possibly be a preparation for a rocket launch. But for that purpose, North Korea would have to threaten all flights from around the world passing through its airspace, not just South Korean flights. This seems more like psychological warfare aimed at bolstering calls in South Korea opposing the U.S. and the joint war drills," Baek said.

   The unification ministry said the aviation warning is "not a notice for a missile launch."

   hkim@yna.co.kr
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