2nd LD) N. Korea threatens military response after S. Korea joins PSI

(ATTN: UPDATES with N.K. English statement, ADDS detail, experts' views)
By Kim Hyun & Tony Chang
SEOUL, May 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Wednesday it was nullifying the Korean
War armistice in response to Seoul's participation in a U.S.-led security
campaign and warned of an immediate military strike should any attempt be made to
interdict its ships.

The statement, issued by the North's permanent military mission to a joint
security area in the demilitarized zone separating the Koreas, also said the
country can no longer guarantee the safety of South Korean and U.S. military
ships and private vessels moving along the western sea border.
"Our revolutionary armed forces, as they have already declared, will regard the
Lee Myung-bak group of traitors' 'full participation' in the PSI as a declaration
of war against the DPRK (North Korea)," the Panmunjom Mission of the North's
Korean People's Army said.
The body represents North Korea's permanent mission to the joint security area in
the truce village of Panmunjom whose counterpart is the U.S.-led United Nations
Command.
South Korea joined the Proliferation Security Initiative on Tuesday in reaction
to the North's nuclear test a day earlier. The second underground test, believed
to be much greater than the first test in 2006 in terms of nuclear yield and
technology, prompted international condemnation and a U.N. Security Council move
to introduce harsh sanctions.
Wednesday's statement was the latest in a series of escalating threats out of
North Korea. Pyongyang test-fired several short-range missiles in the East Sea
soon after its nuclear test and in an another worrying sign, an informed source
in Seoul said the country appears to have restarted its nuclear reprocessing
facility at Yongbyon in mid-April.
Further raising the stakes, the North's military mission said it was scrapping
the armistice agreement brokered in 1953 at the end of the three-year Korean War.

The spirit of the cease-fire agreement had already been broken by South Korea's
participation in the PSI, the military mission claimed, citing a ban on naval
blockades imposed by the armistice.
Seoul officials deny the claim, saying North Korean ships will continue to be
allowed to pass South Korean waters and that the anti-proliferation campaign
targets only ships and planes suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction.
Several North Korean ships were currently passing through South Korean waters,
they said.
Pyongyang has repeatedly warned of its military response should Seoul joins the
PSI. On March 30, it said that South Korea "should never forget that Seoul is
just 50 km away from the Military Demarcation Line."
With the armistice now rendered ineffective, the North's mission said the
country's military will no more respect the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto
border in the Yellow Sea unilaterally drawn at the end of the war by the U.N.
Command. The North has rejected the sea border as illegitimate and demanded it be
redrawn further south. Two bloody skirmishes occurred in the area in 1999 and
2002, claiming scores of lives on both sides.
"For the present, we will not guarantee the legal status of the five islands
under the south side's control," the mission said, as well as "safe sailing of
warships of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces and the South Korean puppet
navy and civilian ships operating in the waters around there."
"It is illogical for the DPRK to unilaterally meet the requirements of fair
international law and the bilateral agreement since the U.S. imperialists and the
Lee Myung-bak group of traitors have reneged on them," it said.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor with the University of North Korean Studies, said
military clashes could occur in the western sea border at any time. North Korea
wants to draw U.S. attention to the peninsula, he said, noting that the warning
was issued by the North Korean mission to the joint security area, within the
purview of the U.N. Command.
Yang also said North Korea may follow up by test-firing inter-continental
ballistic missiles.
Yoo Ho-yeol, a political science professor at Korea University, said North Korea
was "exaggerating" the impact of the anti-proliferation campaign in order to
create an excuse for military provocation.
"There is no room for dialogue between the two Koreas, as the relations are now
in limbo," he said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)