S Korea debates military action

2006-10-10 07:26

Seoul - South Korea called an emergency meeting of its top military commanders on Tuesday and ordered the armed forces to stay alert as it weighed its response to communist North Korea's declared nuclear test.

The order came as unification minister Lee Jong-Seok told a special hearing in parliament that "the government believes North Korea actually conducted a nuclear test".

Seoul, still technically at war with the secretive Pyongyang regime half a century after the Korean War, has said it will never tolerate a nuclear-armed North.

Defence minister Yoon Kwang-Ung summoned the meeting of about 50 senior commanders, including the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the army, navy and air force chiefs.

'Grave threat to stability'

Yoon ordered the country's 650 000-strong military to "maintain steadfast combat readiness" to prevent North Korea miscalculating the situation.

"North Korea's nuclear test is a grave threat to stability and peace in Northeast Asia, and it is an absolutely unpardonable provocative act that defeats the expectations of our government and people," Yonhap news agency quoted him as telling the closed-door meeting.

The military chiefs were to assess security and discuss the response to the announced nuclear test which shocked the world, the defence ministry said.

The military has increased the number of troops near land and sea borders, but is maintaining its normal official alert level.

Test believed to be genuine

The government said it believes the test was genuine but it could take two weeks to decide if it was a success, as the North claims.

Lee Jong-Seok, in charge of North Korean affairs, said the government did not yet recognise Pyongyang as a nuclear power pending analysis of the success of the test.

Increase bargaining power

He said the government believes the North carried out its test, announced on Monday, to increase its bargaining power in negotiations with Washington over its nuclear ambitions.

The government "believes the reason North Korea officially announced (its nuclear test) was to secure the status of a de facto nuclear state," he said.

In Washington the White House said it may not know for "a couple of days" whether North Korea truly tested a nuclear device. But it said it would press for UN security council punishment regardless.

- AFP