The Hindu : N. Korea charge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 06, 2003

International

International

N. Korea charge

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE March 5. South Korea today dismissed the possibility of any pre-emptive strike by the U.S. against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or the North), even as Pyongyang raised its anti-America rhetoric in the context of an aerial incident involving the two over the Sea of Japan.

With the U.S. making it clear that "all options remain on the table'' to deal with North Korea, the DPRK reiterated its demand for a bilateral non-aggression pact.

As seen from East Asia, Washington's move to reinforce its military presence in the West Pacific, through the deployment of some additional state-of-the-art warplanes, has been seized upon by North Korea as a new sign of America's incremental `bellicosity' in this region, ahead of a possible U.S.-led war against Iraq.

It is in this context that South Korea's Unification Minister, Jeong Se-hyun, made light of Pyongyang's suspicions that the U.S. might now be poised to launch a pre-emptive strike against the DPRK's nuclear-arms-related facilities.

In Seoul's reckoning, the U.S. would not go against the anti-war sentiments of the South Korean people as regards their own neighbourhood.

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