S. Korea opposes military action against N. Korea: president

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead paras; UPDATES with additional remarks, more details,
minor changes)
By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, March 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea opposes taking any military action
against North Korea's missile launch though some countries are "rightly"
concerned over the safety of their own citizens due to threats from the launch of
what North Korea claims to be a communications satellite, South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak said Monday.

"What I do oppose is to militarily respond to these kind of actions because it is
also not in their interest to test-fire anything," the South Korean president
said in an interview with the British Newspaper Financial Times.
The remarks came shortly after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S.
will not try to intercept the North Korean rocket unless it is headed for U.S.
territory.
North Korea has said it will launch its communication satellite April 4-8. Many,
including Washington, previously believed and still believe the launch is an
attempt to test the North's long-range missile capabilities.
Still, Lee noted Japan is rightly concerned about the missile launch because the
rocket will "inevitably travel through their airspace" and have the possibility
of falling into their territory or territorial waters.
The Japanese government has publicly instructed its Self-Defense Forces to
intercept any North Korean object that flies over their territory.
"Whether they will do so when it travels through their own airspace we do not
know...no country should say we support it or not because this is a decision made
by Japanese government with the sole purpose of protecting its own citizens," he
said.
Lee also called on the communist nation to refrain from taking the provocative
action, noting regardless of their true intentions, it can only be seen as an
attempt to develop their missile capabilities.
"The truth of the matter is North Korea does have a desire to develop nuclear
weapons so this does precisely make it a very serious concern for them to acquire
the technology to deliver nuclear weapons," said the president.
Lee said his country's main objective in dealing with communist North Korea is to
peacefully reunify the two Koreas, though that will take some time.
"The endgame is peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula. That has never
changed and that will remain our objective," the president said
For now, however, the goal is to remain in peaceful co-existence, Lee said,
because peaceful reunification will not take place in the near future.
Inter-Korean relations have dipped to their lowest since the South Korean
president came into office 13 months ago with a pledge to deal more sternly with
the communist North than his liberal predecessors.
International negotiations on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program have
also hit a stumbling block with Pyongyang now threatening to permanently pull out
of the talks that also involve South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and
Russia if any country tries to intercept what it claims to be a satellite.
Pyongyang has also taken its joint economic project with South Korea in Kaesong,
a border town in the North, a hostage, threatening to shut down the joint
industrial complex amid the tension between the two Koreas and over its missile
activities.
The South Korean president, however, said Seoul had no immediate plans to shut
down the Kaesong complex.
"We are not considering such as measure at this point because the Kaesong
Industrial Complex is one conduit for us to keep that window of dialogue open.
However if North Korea continues to take such extreme positions, actions we will
have to tailor our response and reactions," Lee said.
Turning to economic issues, the South Korean president said he will propose that
all countries "roll back" any trade or financial protectionist measures put into
place since the beginning of the global financial crisis when he attends the
Group of 20 summit in London later this week.
"As a concrete and actionable follow-up, I will propose that the World Trade
Organization report on a quarterly or regular basis to all the member states of
the practices of certain countries and, if they engage in protectionist measures,
to release the names," he said, noting there are many countries "clearly engaged
in some sort of protectionist measures."
The South Korean president is scheduled to depart Tuesday for London, where he
will also hold bilateral summits with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama and five
other heads of state, including Chinese President Hu Jintao and Australian Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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