3rd LD) N. Korea warns of further 'self-defense measure' should U.N. punish its

((ATTN: MODIFIES expert's view, TRIMS)

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, May 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned Friday it will take further
"self-defense counter-measures" should the U.N. Security Council punish its
second nuclear test, a stern message also directed at its allies, China and
Russia.

The warning issued by the North's Foreign Ministry came as the five members of
the Security Council and the countries most affected by the test -- South Korea
and Japan -- were discussing ways to respond to Monday's atomic detonation.
If the Security Council "will make further provocative actions, this will
inevitably lead to the DPRK's (North Korea's) approach toward adopting stronger
self-defense counter-measures," the North said in a statement carried by the
official Korean Central News Agency.
Simultaneously, North Korea fired another short-range missile into the East Sea,
the latest in a series of test-firings following Monday's nuclear blast.
The North called the permanent members of the Security Council -- the United
States, China, Russia, Britain and France -- "hypocrites." Its nuclear test was
the 2,054th in the world, with "99.99 percent" of such tests conducted by those
five countries, it said.
"At present, some countries were shocked at the news of the DPRK's second nuclear
test. But an exceptional act has its exceptional reason," the North said.
"Those countries have posed the biggest nuclear threats in the world. But they
took issue with our first nuclear test, which was conducted in October 2006 as a
self-defense measure to cope with increased nuclear threats by the U.S.," it
said.
North Korea has sharpened its offensives against the U.N. council ever since the
world body condemned its April rocket launch. Pyongyang said the rebuke is unfair
and breaches its sovereignty because the launch sent a satellite into orbit, a
claim disputed by South Korea and the U.S., which believe it was a disguised
long-range missile test.
South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and his U.S. counterpart, Hillary
Clinton, are set to meet in Washington on June 5 to discuss ways to deal with
North Korea's military threats.
The North has the right to launch missiles and test nuclear weapons, it said, as
the country is not a member of the international regimes banning those activities
-- the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Missile Technology Control
Regime.
"There is a limit to our patience," it said.
"It is none other than the U.S. and other forces courting U.S. favor who should
be held entirely responsible for driving the situation to such a pass," the North
said.
Military tensions run high on the Korean Peninsula amid a chain of actions and
retaliations. In response to the North's nuclear test, South Korea joined a
U.S.-led campaign, the Proliferation Security Initiative, in defiance of
Pyongyang's warnings. North Korea swiftly retaliated by threatening military
strikes against South Korean and U.S. naval ships operating near the volatile
border in the Yellow Sea.
In an alarming sign, Chinese fishing vessels were leaving the Yellow Sea border
region, according to a government source in Seoul. More than 280 Chinese vessels
were fishing there earlier this week, but the number has dropped to about 140,
the source said on condition of anonymity.
During the June crab-catching seasons of 1999 and 2002, two bloody skirmishes
occurred along the Yellow Sea border called the Northern Limit Line, claiming the
lives of scores of soldiers on both sides.
The armed forces of South Korea and the U.S. on Thursday raised their level of
surveillance over North Korea.
The North's statement spotlighted the fragile ceasefire on the peninsula. Any
Security Council move to punish its nuclear test "immediately means the
abrogation of the Armistice Agreement" that bans hostilities, it said.
The armistice was signed between North Korea and China on one side and the
U.S.-led United Nations Command on the other as a temporary settlement to end the
Korean War in 1953. It was never replaced by a peace treaty.
North Korea also expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Barack Obama
administration.
"The U.S. is keen on using a catchphrase 'Carrot and stick,' It would be better
for the 'Donkey' of the U.S. Democratic Party to lick the carrot," it said.
Analysts believe North Korea's sharpened rhetoric could be an attempt to water
down envisioned U.N. sanctions. Chang Yong-seok with the non-governmental
Institute for Peace Affairs said North Korea's message toward China and Russia is
a call for help.
"What matters most in this statement is that the North is asking China and Russia
not to rush to agree to tougher sanctions, but help it (North Korea)," Chang
said.
If the Security Council toughens sanctions, the North may conduct a third nuclear
test or launch inter-continental ballistic missiles as so-called self-defense
countermeasures, Chang said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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