N Korea warns the US
2003-07-01 09:29
Seoul - North Korea's military on Tuesday threatened "strong and merciless" retaliation if the United States and its allies imposed sanctions or a blockade against the Stalinist state.
Such a step would breach the armistice agreement (AA) which ended the 1950-1953 Korean War, the Korean People's Army (KPA) said in a statement.
"If the US side applies sanctions against the DPRK (North Korea) and conducts sea and air blockades against it anywhere and starts bolstering troops in and around the Korean peninsula, the KPA side will promptly regard it as a complete breach of the AA by the US side," it said.
The North's military would then "immediately take strong and merciless retaliatory measures against the infringement upon the DPRK's sovereignty by mobilising all its potentials, completely free from the binding force of the AA," it said.
The lengthy KPA statement denounced recent US moves to realign its military presence in South Korea as well as efforts to cobble an international coalition to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
"A touch-and-go situation is now prevailing on the Korean peninsula owing to the US undisguised policy to stifle the DPRK (North Korea)," it said.
"Korea is at the crossroads of war or peace."
Fresh tensions erupted in the region in October when the United States disclosed that North Korea had admitted to running a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 nuclar safeguard accord.
The United States and North Korea sat down for their first talks in three-way negotiations with China in April to resolve the nuclear crisis but no further meetings have been scheduled.
The United States has stepped up efforts to force North Korea to drop its nuclear drive, with Washington now seeking support from its allies to choke off Pyongyang's alleged earnings from the sales of arms, illegal drugs and currency counterfeiting.
North Korea has since accused the United States of planning a blockade of the Stalinist state, warning it could spark a new Korean war.