North Korea would use nuclear weapons in a 'merciless offensive'
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Independent Minds
North Korea today said it would use nuclear weapons in a "merciless offensive" if provoked — its latest bellicose rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring any international punishment for its recent atomic test blast.
The tensions emanating from Pyongyang are beginning to hit nascent business ties with the South: a Seoul-based fur manufacturer became the first South Korean company to announce Monday it was pulling out of an industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong.
The complex, which opened in 2004, is a key symbol of rapprochement between the two Koreas but the goodwill is evaporating quickly in the wake of North Korea's nuclear test on May 25 and subsequent missile tests.
Pyongyang raised tensions a notch by reviving its rhetoric in a commentary in the state-run Minju Joson newspaper today.
"Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means...as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country's dignity and sovereignty even a bit," said the commentary, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
It appeared to be the first time that North Korea referred to its nuclear arsenal as "offensive" in nature. Pyongyang has long claimed that its nuclear weapons program is a deterrent and only for self-defense against what it calls US attempts to invade it.
The tough talk came as South Korea and the US lead an effort at the UN Security Council to have the North punished for its nuclear test with tough sanctions.
Seoul's Yonhap news agency reported today that South Korea had doubled the number of naval ships around the disputed sea border with the North amid concern the communist neighbor could provoke an armed clash there — the scene of skirmishes in 1999 and 2002.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to confirm the report, but said the North has not shown any unusual military moves.
Relations between the two Koreas have significantly worsened since a pro-US, conservative government took office in Seoul last year, advocating a tougher policy on the North. Since then, reconciliation talks have been cut off and all key joint projects except the factory park in Kaesong have been suspended.
Some 40,000 North Koreans are employed at the zone, making everything from electronics and watches to shoes and utensils, providing a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped North. The park combines South Korean technology and management expertise with cheap North Korean labor.
A total of 106 South Korean companies operate in the park. That number will go down by the end of the month when Skinnet, the fur-maker, completes its pullout.
A Skinnet company official said the decision was primarily over "security concerns" for its employees, and also because of a decline in orders from clients concerned over possible disruptions to operations amid the soaring tensions.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.
The industrial park's fate has been in doubt since last month when North Korea threatened to scrap all contracts on running the joint complex and said it would write new rules of its own and the South must accept them or pull out of the zone.
The companies have also been concerned by the detention of a South Korean man working at the complex by North Korean authorities since late March for allegedly denouncing the regime's political system.
The two sides are to hold talks on the fate of the park Thursday.
Intensifying its confrontation with the US, North Korea handed down 12-year prison terms to two detained American journalists on Monday.
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Comments
With a bit of reading around the subject you'll find that it was largely the Bush administration's fault in 2002 for recklessly lumping NK in with its 'axis of evil' and wrongly-accusing it of being in possession of enriched uranium.
The insult prompted Pyongyang to restart its plutonium-based nuclear programme which had been buried in concrete since 1994, culminating in a nuclear test in 2006. This forced the U.S. back to the negotiating table in 2007, and humanitarian aid was promised to North Korea if it abandoned its nuclear ambitions.
North Korea duly complied but aid was slow to arrive, so it declared it was pulling out of the agreement and restarting its nuclear programme, culminating this time in the test in May.
Couple this with the conservative government in Seoul which spends $20bn a year on its military compared to the $500m that Pyongyang spends, and you can begin to understand why it thinks pursuing the nuclear option is a good idea.
I'm not condoning North Korea's actions, I'm just saying it's worth finding out why things are happening the way they are.
Of course, it's a better read if only the scary half of the story is presented!
Steve, Texas USA
Din't he pay them billions of dollars to shut down their program? He even promised not to check up on them to see if they were telling the truth, as a show of good faith and a "sweetener" to the deal.
Well at least his wife can now correct his "mistake" that allowed them to build things up. She is just howling at the top of her lungs about this, Isn't she? Oh, I guess not.
Maybe there is just something wrong with both of them. Maybe they don't realize what a disaster it is to let a stalinist dictator have nukes. Or then again maybe they do understand, but the payments from china are just too compelling.
I'm not positive this is all true, but I'm not joking either. You just have to have a long enough attention span to follow the news of these transactions over a period of many years.
It would be more than unpleasantly ironic if we were hit by such weapons thanks to the deals of one of our own presidents ...
U.N. sanctions don't seem to mean anything to the nut job running N. Korea. Perhaps people inside the country who are not so irrational will fear a more direct response possibility and not want their country and families destroyed.
M.A.D. worked. Fear works even with madmen.
Maybe they'll feel better after Hillary stops in for a cup of coffee and tells them we love them.
pbams i repeating history hes the most dangerous threat in the world to dy a weak man and the animals are at the gate for the power grab
mad max and the thunder dome is happening before our very eyes
The real issue is China. They stand to benefit the longer this drags out. A nuke blast would affect them very little. The prevailing winds would carry the radio activity towards Japan and the Pacific. I'm convinced that this is all about China draining U.S. resources and sticking it to Japan at the same time. NK provides an easy way for China to have its cake and eating it too.