N. Korea vows 'every measure' to protect sovereignty amid S. Korea-U.S. drill

SEOUL, March 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Wednesday vowed to take "every necessary measure" to defend its sovereignty, as it continued preparations to launch what it claims is a satellite amid an ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drill.

The statement by the North's Foreign Ministry followed a warning from the
country's military on Monday that any foreign attempt to intercept the satellite
will lead to a war on the Korean Peninsula.
U.S. and Japanese military officials have suggested they are weighing whether to
shoot down the North Korean rocket.
"The DPRK, exposed to the potential threat of the U.S. and its allied forces,
will take every necessary measure to protect its sovereignty," the unnamed
spokesman said in a statement carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official
name.
North Korea has said it will launch a communications satellite, Kwangmyongsong-2,
into orbit as part of its peaceful space development program.
Given the North's past missile activity, there has been conflicting speculation
about the nature of the rocket the North plans to launch. Neighbor countries
believe the North will test-launch a long-range missile under the cover of a
satellite.
But the chief U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday that the object may indeed
be a "space-launch vehicle" as the North claims.
"I tend to believe that -- the North Koreans announced that they were going to do
a space launch, and I believe that that's what they ... intend," U.S. National
Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said in a Senate Armed Services Committee
hearing. "I could be wrong, but that would be my estimate."
Blair's remarks left questions about how the U.S. would respond if and when the
North launches the rocket.
Baek Seung-joo, an analyst with the state-run Korea Institute for Defense
Analyses in Seoul, said North Korea revealed its fear of a possible interception
by reemphasizing its sovereign right to space.
"North Korea appears to have a deep fear -- it launches a long-range rocket, but
neighboring countries shoot it down. If that happens, North Korea will face
tremendous fallout in its internal politics," Baek said. "North Korea is saying
(neighbor countries) don't have a right to interfere and that it will go ahead
with the launch."
North Korea has never successfully launched a satellite or a long-range missile.
Choson Sinbo, a Tokyo-based newspaper that conveys Pyongyang's position, said
North Korea's satellite activity is part of its economic reconstruction policy.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is mobilizing all resources to build a strong
nation by 2012, the paper noted.
"Economic revival based on modern science technology is the country's unwavering
policy. The satellite launch plan is inseparable from the start of a 'new
revolutionary upsurge," the paper said, referring to an economic drive the North
launched this year.
In Wednesday's statement, the North also protested the "words and deeds" of the
Barack Obama administration.
"The new administration of the U.S. is now working hard to infringe upon the
sovereignty of the DPRK by force of arms ... after letting loose a whole string
of words and deeds little short of getting on the nerves of the DPRK and
seriously interfering in its internal affairs," the North's Foreign Ministry
spokesman said.
The statement did not elaborate, but it appeared to be linked to a series of
remarks recently made by senior Washington officials and reports that have irked
Pyongyang.
During her Asia trip last month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton touched
on the sensitive issue of succession in North Korea, saying "the whole leadership
situation is somewhat unclear."
U.S. Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. forces in Korea, told reporters
last month that South Korea and the U.S. have devised several scenarios to
prepare for all contingencies in North Korea.
A recent U.S. human rights report continued to characterize the communist state
as a "dictatorship."
Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst with the independent Sejong Institute in Seoul,
said North Korea was specifically taking on the U.S. State Department.
"The North is sending its message clearly that the U.S. needs to acknowledge the
North Korean regime and respect it as a partner for dialogue," Cheong said.
A six-party process on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, grouping South and
North Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, has yet to resume after the
latest round in December broke down over a dispute on how to verify Pyongyang's
past nuclear activity.
The North said the ongoing military drill by South Korea and the U.S. are
"nuclear war exercises designed to mount a preemptive attack on the DPRK in terms
of their scale and contents from A to Z."
South Korea and the U.S. say their annual drills are purely defensive. In this
year's Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercise that began on Monday, the U.S.
introduced a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to test its ability to quickly
deploy forces should North Korea invade. About 25,000 U.S. troops and 20,000
South Korean troops are taking part in the 12-day drill.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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