N. Korea `disappointed` by Hatoyama`s resignation as Japan`s premier+

PYONGYANG, June 3 Kyodo -
North Korea expressed disappointment Thursday at the resignation of Japanese
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Wednesday for yielding to U.S. pressure and
breaking his pledge to relocate a U.S. Marine base outside Okinawa Prefecture.
Ro Jong Su, a director-level researcher at the North Korean Foreign Ministry,
also said in an interview in Pyongyang the ruling Grand National Party's defeat
in South Korean local elections Wednesday showed the South Korean public
''turned its back on the administration of (President) Lee Myung Bak,'' partly
for his handling in the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship.
It was the first time for a North Korean official to comment on the two latest
political developments in Japan and South Korea.
Ro said the North will employ ''ultra strong'' countermeasures if the South
refer the sunken ship case to the U.N. Security Council for punishing
Pyongyang, alluding to the possibility the country may conduct a third nuclear
test.
On Hatoyama's resignation, Ro said, ''We are disappointed'' by Hatoyama's
decision to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station within Okinawa
Prefecture and his failure to pursue foreign policy that is more independent
from the United States, so the resignation ''was his own fault.''
''Initially, Hatoyama made spirited calls to the United States that he will
review an agreement the previous Liberal Democratic Party-led government struck
with Washington'' over Futenma, said Ro, who is in charge of Japanese affairs.
Under a 2006 bilateral accord, Futenma's heliport functions would be moved from
Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to a coastal area of the Marines' Camp Schwab in
Nago in the same prefecture as part of the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.
''But in reality, Hatoyama abandoned his pledge in an attempt to ensure
stability in the government, make way for his own survival...and flatter his
superior, the United States,'' Ro said.
Ro also criticized the Hatoyama Cabinet, which will resign Friday morning, for
imposing additional sanctions on North Korea, including measures to limit
remittances to the country, and for teaming up with South Korea and the United
States in accusing Pyongyang over the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan in the
Yellow Sea, which left 46 sailors dead.
The researcher indicated, however, a willingness to improve relations with
Japan if a post-Hatoyama government responds to the North's call for
compensation for Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
''No matter what kind of government is formed in Japan, nothing will change (in
North Korea-Japan relations) if a new government follows policy steps of the
previous government,'' he said. ''But if Japan moves to improve relations with
us, we will respond accordingly.''
Ro said the South Korean election results suggested that although ''some forces
tried to bring the sunken ship case to an impure direction (by making it an
election issue), it did not work.''
The election defeat prompted the GNP chairman to express his intention Thursday
to step down. The polls were seen as a mid-term referendum on the Lee
government.
Ro said Pyongyang regards a referral of the Cheonan incident to the Security
Council and deliberations there as ''an infringement on the country's
sovereignty and dignity of its people.''
''The U.N. Security Council must not forget the lesson that its censure for our
satellite launch in April last year led to our nuclear test'' in May the same
year, Ro said, without elaborating.
Asked if such strong countermeasures would involve North Korea's third nuclear
test or a test-firing of a ballistic missile, Ro only said, ''You will see what
kind of response we would take.''
The North has repeatedly dismissed the South's accusation the Cheonan was sunk
by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine, a conclusion drawn by an
international group of investigators.
Pyongyang threatened an ''all-out war'' if it is hit with retaliation and
sanctions.
As for the rumored succession issue in North Korea, Ro dismissed foreign
reports as saying that leader Kim Jong Il has unofficially appointed his third
son, Jong Un, to his heir.
==Kyodo