N. Korea rejects U.N. Command's call for end to rocket preparation

(ATTN: RECASTS lead, headline; UPDATES with N. Korean media report throughout)
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, March 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea refused to stop preparations to launch
what it calls a space satellite when its high-level military officers held border
talks with the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) on Friday, its official
media said.

North Korean Army Major. Gen. Kwak Chol-hui "made it clear that the satellite
launch is an independent right pertaining to a sovereign state under
international law," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
South Korea and the U.S. say the communist North appears to be moving to
test-fire a ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska. Pyongyang said last
week it is readying a communications satellite as part of its space development
project.
North Korea also demanded South Korea and the U.S. cancel their March 9-20 Key
Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise, the KCNA reported, warning Pyongyang would
otherwise start treating the new administration in Washington with the same
hostilities it did the previous one.
North Korea will conclude that the "U.S. hostile policy to bring down the DPRK by
force of arms remains unchanged," the report quoted Kwak as saying. DPRK is the
acronym for the North's official title, the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea.
"In that case the U.S. forces side will be held fully accountable for all the
ensuing consequences," he was quoted as saying.
North Korea demanded earlier this week in its first general-level encounter with
the UNC in over six years that Seoul and Washington scrap their joint annual
military exercise.
Pyongyang accuses the allies of preparing for invasion when they conduct the
exercise, which is based on an operational plan that allows for the deployment of
hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops should North Korea provoke war on the
divided peninsula.
South Korea and the U.S. say the integrated exercise is purely defense-oriented.
On Thursday, North Korea declared it refuses to ensure the safety of South Korean
passenger planes flying over its eastern waters as long as the exercise remains
effective.
At Friday's talks that lasted 45 minutes at the village of Panmunjom that
straddles the divided Koreas, the UNC "offered initial confidence-building
measures which could be pursued action for action," its press release said.
The UNC also "urged North Korea to refrain from taking any provocative actions
that would further increase tensions," defending its upcoming drill as "purely
defensive," it said.
U.S. Air Force Major Gen. Johnny Weida led the UNC delegation that included
officers from South Korea, Britain and New Zealand.
The North Korean decision to ward off South Korean airplanes "should be retracted
immediately," the UNC insisted during the talks, according to the statement.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, backing the UNC that
monitors the truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
The escalating tension coincides with Pyongyang's suspected preparations to
launch a ballistic missile. Pyongyang says it is working to launch a
communications satellite as part of its space development program.
Analysts say the move appears to be aimed at grabbing the attention of new U.S.
President Barack Obama, who has yet to fully unveil his North Korea policy.
The two countries remain deadlocked in multinational talks aimed at dismantling
the North's nuclear weapons and programs. North Korea, which conducted its first
atomic test in 2006, is refusing to endorse a U.S. proposal that would verify its
past nuclear activities.
The tensions also come as North Korea is set to hold its rubber-stamp
parliamentary elections on Sunday, one day before the U.S.-South Korea exercise
kicks off with an aircraft carrier.
The elections will likely be a chance for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to
reaffirm his control over the country's 1.2 million troops, analysts say, as the
isolated state plays up external threats to bolster internal unity.
U.S. and South Korean officials believe Kim suffered a stroke last summer, which
may have caused the postponement of the event initially set for August last
year. He has since recovered enough to rule his country, they say.
North Korea condemned the U.S. last weekend, saying it has increased provocations
along the inter-Korean border and that their armistice has been breached.
The U.S. says it has only conducted routine surveillance activities.
North Korea has cut off all dialogue with South Korea, scrapping their past
military deals and warning of a clash near their western sea border, where naval
battles turned deadly in 1999 and 2002.
The impoverished North blames the strained ties on South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak, who took office last year with a pledge to tie aid to North Korean
efforts to disarm itself of nuclear weapons.
About 30 passenger planes, including 16 South Korean ones, daily plied the East
Sea route before North Korea made the threat through its official media on
Thursday.
The area falls into the Flight Information Region (FIR), open to use by other
nations under an international aviation agreement. The two major South Korean
airlines, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, said they immediately rerouted their
planes.
North Korea's territorial waters extend about 30 kilometers off the coast, while
the FIR can cover up to hundreds of kilometers, according to South Korean
officials.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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