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NORTH KOREA THIS WEEK NO. 462 (August 16, 2007)
*** NEWS IN BRIEF (Part 2)
N. Korea warns joint military exercise could hinder denuclearization process
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned on August 10 that a planned South Korea-U.S. military exercise may make Pyongyang hesitant to take further steps towards denuclearization.
The warning followed media reports that Seoul may scale down or cancel the Ulchi Focus Lens (UFL) exercise scheduled to be held later this month in a bid to avoid a dispute with the North ahead of the Aug. 28-30 inter-Korean summit.
"The (North) Korean People's Army (KPA) will actively put into practice its earlier statement that it will do all it can to round off the powerful striking means to cope with the large-scale war maneuvers to be staged against the DPRK (North Korea)," the Panmunjom Mission of the KPA said in an English-language statement.
The North said it delivered the statement directly to the U.S. in a colonel-level meeting at the truce village of Panmunjom earlier in the day. The United Nations Command (UNC) in Seoul confirmed the meeting.
"It is true that the two sides had a meeting for about 35 minutes at the Military Armistice Committee office in Panmunjom," the UNC spokesman Kim Yong-gyu said. "The North proposed a contact."
The North said "the U.S. will be wholly held responsible for the catastrophic impact the above-said saber-rattling will have on the implementation of the Feb. 13 agreement and the six-way talks."
Under the agreement, the North shut down its main nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, and it is also required to disable its atomic weapons program.
The North claimed the UFL shows Washington's indifference to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.
The KPA's statement did not mention the coming summit in Pyongyang between President Roh Moo-hyun and his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-il.
The UFL, the world's largest computerized command-and-control exercise, is aimed at fostering the allies' joint defense capability against a possible North Korean attack. Conservatives say it is a pillar of the Seoul-Washington alliance, which dates back to the 1950-53 Korean War.
The North's military has routinely condemned the exercise. This year's UFL is viewed as having far bigger geopolitical implications, as it coincides with the first inter-Korean summit in seven years.
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N. Korea urges U.S. to take swift action to resolve S. Korean hostage crisis
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea urged the United States to take immediate action to secure the release of South Korean captives in Afghanistan, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Aug. 10.
In a statement carried by the KCNA, a spokesman for the North's National Reconciliation Council said, "But for the U.S. act of driving South Korea into a war of aggression against Afghanistan which it launched under the pretext of a 'war on terrorism,' such a tragic incident would not have happened."
The council also urged the U.S. "to take prompt measures to relieve the innocent South Korean civilians of the pain and misfortune caused by it," the KCNA said.
Twenty-three South Koreans were seized by the Taliban on July 19 while traveling from Kabul to Kandahar on a bus for volunteer services sponsored by a church. Two of the male hostages were shot dead later in the month, and two female captives were released on August 13.
The captors have demanded that the Afghan government free Taliban prisoners in exchange for the release of the hostages.
U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai reaffirmed in their talks last weekend that they will not make concessions to terrorists and hostage-takers. Bush then branded the Taliban as "brutal" and "cold-blooded."
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N. Korea blasts U.S. for not working harder to free Korean hostages in Afghanistan
SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea blasted the United States on Aug. 15 for "sitting idle" and turning a blind eye to the protracted captivity of 19 South Korean hostages by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
"The families of the victims and other people from all walks of life in South Korea ardently appealed to the U.S. to actively come out for the settlement of the problem," the North's Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary.
"But the U.S. is coolly turning aside from the case, while repeatedly calling for not making compromise with terrorism," said the English-language commentary carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency.
The newspaper blamed the U.S. war on terrorism for the hostage-taking unfolding in the South Asian Islamic country.
"Such tragic case would not have occurred if the U.S. had not launched the brigandish war on terrorism in Afghanistan and introduced South Korea there to meet its own interests," it said.
(END)
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