N Korea warns against S. Korea`s joining of PSI

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details from para 3)
SEOUL, April 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea renewed its warning Saturday that it
would view South Korea's full participation in a U.S.-led anti-proliferation
drive as a declaration of a war against Pyongyang.
North Korea will consider "any pressure to be put upon it through 'total
participation' in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) as a declaration of
undisguised confrontation and a declaration of a war against the DPRK (North
Korea)," a spokesman for the General Staff of the North's Korean People's Army
said. His remarks were carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea's armed forces are always "keeping themselves fully ready to go into
action any moment" to punish anyone encroaching on the country's sovereignty, the
spokesman said.
South Korea "should never forget that Seoul is just 50 km away from the Military
Demarcation Line," he said, referring to the inter-Korean border.
The spokesman dismissed six-nation denuclearization talks, saying the country's
army "has never pinned any hope on the six-party talks from their outset."
His remarks follow Seoul's decision earlier in the day to postpone announcing
its plan to join the PSI until after the proposed talks with North Korea.
Seoul officials said North Korea has proposed holding talks with the South on
Tuesday at a joint industrial park in the communist state, where a South Korean
worker remained detained for the 20th day.
Defying repeated warnings from the United States, Japan and other countries,
North Korea launched a long-range rocket on April 5, prompting the U.N. Security
Council to issue a condemnation saying the launch violated a U.N. resolution
banning the North from ballistic activity.
Challenging the Security Council's accusation over the rocket launch, Pyongyang
said Tuesday it was withdrawing from nuclear disarmament talks and restoring its
nearly disabled nuclear facilities.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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