SOUTH KOREA and the United States have raised the military alert level for the peninsula after the communist North warned yesterday that the armistice which ended the Korean War was dead and it was ready for a military strike attack.
At the same time the international community was preparing to hit North Korea with more sanctions, through what is expected to be a tough resolution by the 15- member United Nations Security Council.
There were growing signs that council members, including North Korea’s ally China, which has previously vetoed a tougher stance on the North, had agreed in principle on sanctions.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have rarely been cranked so high since the 1950-53 Korean War. The stand-off began with a second nuclear weapons test by North Korea on Monday, which they followed up with a volley of short-range missile launches and threats of war.
North Korea is not thought to have the ability to launch a nuclear weapon, but its nuclear status is causing widespread disquiet in the region, especially in its deadly rivals South Korea and Japan. This fear has been stoked by the North’s fearsome rhetoric.
“As circumstances show, provocations of war on the part of the US and South Korea have gone well beyond the risky level. It is a matter of time until a fuse for war is triggered,” ran a newspaper commentary carried on the official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea has repeatedly abandoned the truce ending the war in the past few years, but this time it is considered a serious step.
North Korea said it could not guarantee the safety of South Korean ships in disputed areas of the Yellow Sea since the South had chosen to join the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative this week, which Pyongyang described as an act of war.
Trying to work out the motivation behind a week of defiance and aggression, analysts believe recent actions may reflect an effort by leader Kim Jong-Il to secure his grip on power and help him to impose his third son as his successor.
By bringing the attention of the world to his impoverished country and showing his ability to stand up to outside pressure, he can boost his standing among the country’s 23 million people.
South Korea has 670,000 troops on its side of the demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, supported by 28,500 US troops. The US also has 50,000 troops in Japan. All of these forces are within striking range of North Korea’s missiles. There are about two million troops in total in the DMZ.