South Korea's government and military was kept on alert Sunday following the North's warning one day earlier that it would respond to U.S.-imposed financial sanctions with "countermeasures."
North Korea said in a Foreign Ministry statement released Saturday that it would take all necessary countermeasures against what it calls intensifying U.S. financial restrictions on the communist country. The warning came amid reports of the North's alleged steps to conduct its first nuclear test.
Government and military sources said the North's spoken-of countermeasures would include nuclear tests or additional long-range missile launches, adding that Seoul is preparing itself for such "worst-case scenarios." The North test-fired the latest missiles despite international appeals not to do so in early July.
Officials were also put on alert by the report of a pro-Pyongyang newspaper published in Japan earlier on Saturday.
"We are not able to conclude that North Korea will not conduct a nuclear test to bolster its deterrent effect against the U.S. if the Bush administration decides to take a tougher stance (against the North)," the Chosun Sinbo said in a commentary, which often represents the North's official position.
The sources agreed that the North, which already declared it possesses a nuclear deterrent on Feb. 10 last year, is capable of carrying out the nuclear test.
"The North might have received the know-how of how to conduct a nuclear test from Pakistan, and constructing the underground tunnel for the nuclear test is not so difficult," said Kim Tae-woo, a senior researcher of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a state-run research organization.
The government is closely monitoring developments around the clock to see whether the North will carry out a nuclear test.
Earlier this month, it dispatched six soldiers to a local earthquake detection center to check for any signal of such a test.
Meanwhile, the government is making efforts to revive the stalled six-way talks to make a breakthrough in the current confrontation between the U.S. and the North.
The North has been refusing to return to the talks since November citing the U.S. financial sanctions in breach of the joint agreement at talks in Beijing in Sept., which guaranteed the North's security and economic aid in exchange for its forfeiting of its nuclear program.
Seoul has taken note of the following paragraph from Saturday's statement by North Korea: "The DPRK likes to have the six-party talks more than ever as it will gain from the implementation of the agreement more than others." DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
"The North has told of its intention of attending the six-way talks more dramatically," a government official said on condition of anonymity, adding that he sees this as a "positive" sign.
Representatives of South Korea and Japan in the six-way talks held a meeting in Seoul last week, which was followed by Seoul's decision to dispatch a high profile official to Beijing to exchange opinions on resuming the six-way talks.
Christopher Hill, the U.S. representative of the six-way talks, will come to Seoul early next month, and Seoul will seek a more flexible attitude to facilitate the resumption of the talks, the official added.
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Yonhap)
Seoul alert after Pyongyang warns of 'countermeasures' |
