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Date Posted: 22:20:10 02/05/03 Wed
Author: Queer
Subject: We got a nuke-crazy moron, they got a nuke-crazy moron.

N Korea threatens US with first strike

http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,889679,00.html

Pyongyang asserts right to pre-emptive attack as tensions rise over
American build-up

Jonathan Watts in Pyongyang
Thursday February 6, 2003
The Guardian

North Korea is entitled to launch a pre-emptive strike against the US
rather than wait until the American
military have finished with Iraq, the North's foreign ministry told the
Guardian yesterday.

Warning that the current nuclear crisis is worse than that in 1994,
when the peninsula stood on the brink of
oblivion, a ministry spokesman called on Britain to use its influence
with Washington to avert war.

"The United States says that after Iraq, we are next", said the deputy
director Ri Pyong-gap, "but we have our
own countermeasures. Pre-emptive attacks are not the exclusive right of
the US."

His comments came on a day when tension was apparent in Pyongyang, with
an air-raid drill that cleared the
city's streets and the North's announcement that it has begun
full-scale operations at the Yongbyon nuclear
plant, the suspected site of weapons-grade plutonium production.

Since reopening the plant in December, the North has kicked out
international inspectors and withdrawn from the
global treaty to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

Anxiety in North Korea has been rising since Washington announced plans
in the past week to beef up its
military strength in the area. Additional bombers will be sent to the
region, along with 2,000 extra troops who
will serve alongside the 17,000 already stationed on the North-South
border. USS Carl Vinson may also be
deployed.

According to Pyongyang, the USS Kitty Hawk has already taken up strike
position in waters off the peninsula.
The US says that reinforcements are needed to warn Pyongyang that it
should not try to take advantage of
Washington's focus on Iraq.

North Korean officials fear the extra forces are the start of the
build-up for a full-scale confrontation - a
dangerous assumption that could push the peninsula over the edge.

During the last crisis, when the Pentagon planned a surgical strike on
the Yongbyon nuclear plant, American
generals were convinced that the North would rather launch a surprise
attack than wait for a US military build-
up.

Mr Ri said today's stand-off is more dangerous: "The present situation
can be called graver than it was in
1993. It will be touch and go."

The crisis erupted in October when a US envoy to Pyongyang confronted
the regime with suspicions that North
Korea was engaged in a uranium enrichment programme, in violation of
the 1994 agreement which ended the last
crisis.

To punish the North, the US cut off supplies of 500,000 tonnes a year
of heavy fuel oil, a severe blow to a
nation that is desperately short of energy. The north of the country is
worst hit but power shortages are
apparent even in the capital, where temperatures have fallen as low as
-21C recently.

The North claims that the Yongbyon nuclear plant is being used for
peaceful purposes. "The US stopped our oil
so our country faces a critical shortage of electricity," Mr Ri said.
"Our nuclear activities will be confined
only to producing electricity."

Both sides say they are committed to finding a diplomatic solution but
remain far apart in their demands.
Pyongyang wants a non-aggression treaty but Washington has said it will
not reward blackmail and has hinted
only at a written guarantee of the North's security.

Concern about the crisis has prompted South Korea and Japan to pressure
the US to take a softer line. In a sign
that this may be working, the US deputy secretary of state, Richard
Armitage said for the first time yesterday
that the US would definitely hold direct talks with the North. "It is
just a question of when we do it and
how," he told the Senate.

A breakthrough stills looks distant. The European Union plans to send a
high-level delegation to North Korea
later this month to mediate, but similar envoys from Russia and South
Korea achieved little because the North
insists that the issue is a bilateral matter with the US.

The North has shown a willingness to open up to other na tions. In an
important development, a new road link to
South Korea was used for the first time yesterday.

But the North know that the nuclear issue stands in the way of
progress, prompting a request that Britain
intercede. "The US must sign a non-aggression treaty," Mr Li said.

"I hope that Britain can help to persuade them to do so."

· Japan may deploy two destroyers near North Korea to detect missile
launches, the Kyodo news agency reported
on yesterday. Quoting unspecified government sources, it said Tokyo
believes it increasingly likely that
ballistic missiles will be test-fired as part of the North's
brinkmanship.

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