NORTH KOREA yesterday accused South Korea of preparing to wage war against it and warned of "irrevocable disaster" as a consequence. But, after a tense weekend during which hundreds of North Korean troops entered the border area on three successive nights, there were no further incidents, and the demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two enemies was quiet last night.
"The Korean peninsula is in the worst situation due to the dangerous military activities of South Korea that can be seen on the eve of war," said the Pyongyang based Korean Central News Agency, quoting an article in the Rodong Shinmun, the official organ of the North Korean Workers' Party.
"The South Korean puppets must know that if they regard the North's warning as empty talk and display war hysterics, they will face an irrevocable disaster. It goes without saying that their reckless war preparations are manipulated by the bellicose quarters of the United States," the statement said.
Meanwhile, South Korea warned that it would shoot any North Korean troops crossing into the demilitarised zone. In the past, North Koreans have been given a chance to retreat before being shot at.
In Seoul yesterday, the
South Korean president, Kim Young-sam, conferred with his defence minister and generals to discuss the latest incident on Sunday night, when truck loads of soldiers of the Korean People's Army (KPA) carried out exercises at Panmunjom, the only crossing point on the 150 mile long DMZ. The incursions began on Friday, the day after Pyongyang announced that it would no longer maintain its obligations in the DMZ which has divided the two Koreas since the armistice brought an end to the Korean wear in 1953.
President Kim was quoted by a spokesman as saying that "South Korea will not tolerate North Korea's continued threats of reckless provocations." A foreign ministry spokesman said that it had called upon 30 countries, including the United States, China, Russia and Japan, to demand that Pyongyang honour its armistice obligations.
A spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry, formerly one of the North's closest allies, called for "restraint above all from Pyongyang ... The main thing is to stick to the armistice accord and not violate it before a new mechanism is worked out."
The commander of the 37,000 American forces stationed in the South, General Gary Luck, met his Korean counterpart yesterday, but the United Nations, which supervises the armistice, continued to downplay the seriousness of the incidents. Coach loads of tourists from the South who visit the border in their hundreds to peer over into the North were still being admitted to Panmunjom.
"These are illegal training events," a UN command spokesman said. "The rest of the DMZ is quiet the same tense, dirty, nasty place it always is."
The North's strategy appears to be to pressure the US into concluding a separate peace treaty, excluding Seoul. But it is complicated by elections to be held on Thursday to the South Korean National Assembly.
Until last week, President Kim's New Korea Party (NKP) had been trailing badly, and was expected to lose its majority. The timing of the border scare suggests that it was intended to undermine the NKP's campaign but its practical effect may turn out to be the opposite. Kim's statesmanlike response may even up the balance in his party's favour.