UNDERLINING THE fragility of last week’s breakthrough on nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the demilitarised zone (DMZ) with bitter rival South Korea and ordered troops to be on high alert.
There has been a flurry of wild rhetoric from the North Koreans over US-South Korean military drills, including threats to wage a “sacred war” against Seoul over the joint exercises.
Pyongyang sees the exercises as a rehearsal for invasion and its National Defense Commission said at the weekend that Washington and Seoul must halt the joint military drills if they are serious about peace on the Korean peninsula.
Some believe Mr Kim is playing the military card as he is keen to boost his standing with the army, upon whose backing his leadership is reliant.
Mr Kim visited Panmunjom, the village overseeing the uneasy ceasefire along the world’s most heavily fortified border between the two Koreas, on Saturday, his first visit to the village since the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.
Panmunjom, a grouping of huts inside the 248km-long DMZ, has a strong symbolic function as it is jointly monitored by the US-led UN Command and North Korea after the ceasefire signed in 1953.
North and South Korea are still technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and some 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea.
Official North Korean news agency KCNA said Mr Kim told soldiers there to “maintain the maximum alertness as they are standing in confrontation with the enemy at all times”.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans, including soldiers and students, rallied in Pyongyang and vowed to overthrow South Korea’s leader, Lee Myung-bak, who is loathed by the Kim administration for halting a no-strings-attached food-aid policy to the North on coming to power in 2008, demanding instead that any aid was contingent on progress by the North in abandoning nukes.
Last week Washington and Pyongyang announced the North agreed to suspend nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches and to allow checks by international nuclear watchdog inspectors in return for 240,000 tons of food aid.
Despite the strong rhetoric from the North, most believe the positive momentum remained intact, and Wednesday’s breakthrough was seen as a vital step towards resuming long-stalled six-party nuclear talks, hosted by China and featuring both Koreas, the US, Japan and Russia.
However, the South remains cautious. North Korea has walked out of such talks many times before.