N. Korea warns any U.N. action will rupture six-party talks

(ATTN: UPDATES with detail)
SEOUL, March 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned Thursday that any U.N. action
against its satellite launch will rupture the six-party denuclearization talks
and prompt Pyongyang to reverse the disabling process of its key nuclear reactor.

Any action by the U.N. Security Council -- whether a chairman's statement or just
an attempt to consider it -- will be considered a "hostile action," a spokesman
for the North's Foreign Ministry said in an interview carried by the Korean
Central News Agency.
The warning was even stronger than North Korea's previous statement, issued on
Tuesday, which hinted Pyongyang may quit the six-party talks should the U.N.
sanction it over its satellite launch.
Nuclear envoys from the United States, South Korea and Japan are set to meet in
Washington on Friday to coordinate their responses to the launch set for early
April.
The unnamed spokesman said, "Not only issuing a document that has a word of
criticism against our peaceful satellite launch but even a move to lay the
document before the U.N. Security Council will be a violent hostile action
against us."
He said the "hostile" action will be a breach of a landmark agreement that the
six nations -- the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia -- reached in
2007 in the spirit of mutual respect and equality.
"From the very moment the Sept. 19 joint statement is abrogated due to such a
hostile action, the six-party talks will become non-existent," the spokesman
said.
"All the progress that has been made toward the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula will return to its original condition, and strong measures that are
necessary will be taken," he said.
North Korea has notified U.N. agencies it will put its communications satellite
Kwangmyongsong-2 into orbit between April 4-8, which regional countries believe
might be a cover for a long-range missile test. Pyongyang warned that any foreign
attempt to shoot down the satellite will lead to a war.
On Tuesday's statement, the foreign ministry spokesman rejected the argument used
to oppose the North's rocket launch, which is that the technologies used for
shooting a satellite and a missile are indistinguishable. The U.S. and Japan have
already put their own satellites into space, meaning they have more advanced
missile technology, the spokesman noted.
"The brigandish logic that they may launch as many satellites as they please but
the DPRK should not be allowed to do so is a revelation of hostility towards it,"
he said on Tuesday. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
the North's official name.
"The above-said assertion made by those countries is just the same far-fetched
assertion that both kitchen knives and bayonets should be targets of disarmament
as both are similar to each other," he said.
A pro-Pyongyang newspaper hinted Thursday that North Korea may resort to a second
nuclear test should the United Nations sanction it.
The Choson Sinbo, a Tokyo-based newspaper that conveys Pyongyang's position,
compared the current situation to the run-up to North Korea's first nuclear test
in 2006. Pyongyang detonated its atomic bomb in October that year after the U.N.
Security Council adopted a resolution punishing the North for its missile test
three months earlier.
"If the fuss over sanctions repeats in historical amnesia, it may trigger North
Korea's ultra-hardline response again," it said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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