North Korea threatens to stop talks with SKorea

[February 04, 2010]  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea threatened Friday to break off all dialogue and negotiations with South Korea in anger over Seoul's alleged contingency plan to deal with potential unrest in the communist country.

The National Defense Commission -- the North's most powerful state organ headed by leader Kim Jong Il -- also warned the North will initiate a "retaliatory holy war" against South Korea over the plan, which the North claims is aimed at toppling its regime.

The rare statement from the commission comes amid diplomatic efforts to revive stalled international talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs. It also comes as North Korea has offered conciliatory gestures to the South, including one Thursday to discuss restarting stalled tour programs.

North Korea stopped short of saying whether it will push for Seoul's exclusion in the broader disarmament talks that involve the U.S., China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, which Pyongyang is boycotting.

The statement also said, however, South Korea could still salvage dialogue by apologizing to the North for what it called unspecified "crimes" against it.

Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the Sejong Institute, a private security think tank near Seoul, said the North was issuing a warning it may not talk to South Korea in future disarmament negotiations as it did to Japan in some previous rounds.

The North accused South Korea of having completed the plan and was in the process of putting it into action.

"A retaliatory holy war will be launched to blow away the headquarters of South Korean authorities," said the statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea occasionally issues statements that include threats to destroy South Korea. Authorities in Seoul monitor them carefully though usually take them in stride.

The statement also urged South Korea to punish those who engaged in drafting the plan while demanding South Korea disband its top spy agency and the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.

South Korea has reportedly drawn up a military operations plan with the United States to cope with possible emergencies in North Korea. South Korea's Defense Ministry has consistently declined to comment about the existence of such a plan.

South Korea has also recently modified its own independent contingency plans in the event of turmoil in the North, South Korea's mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported earlier this week, citing an unidentified government official.

Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung expressed deep regret Friday over the North's rhetoric, which he said was driven by unconfirmed media reports.

The North's warning came just two hours after it told the South it will accept 10,000 tons of South Korea's previous food aid offer, said Chun.

The North's state media did not mention the food aid.

For a decade, South Korea was one of the biggest donors to the North before President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008 with a pledge to get tough on the North and halted unconditional assistance.

The North's latest threat called into question its recent overtures toward South Korea and marked a clear departure from its New Year's Day commitment to improve relations.

On Thursday, the North proposed holding talks with South Korea later this month on restarting joint tour programs stalled over the shooting death of a southern tourist and Pyongyang's anger over Seoul's hard-line policies.

"The North sent conflicting signals to the South," said Paik, noting Friday's warnings would have negative implications for inter-Korean relations.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

[Associated Press; By KWANG-TAE KIM]

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