N. Korea blasts South Korean-U.S. scenario on emergency

SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Monday accused South Korea and the
United States of scheming for a war against it, citing their reported completion
of a joint action plan to cope with any contingency in the communist country.
The allies recently completed their envisioned response to a variety of internal
emergencies in North Korea, including the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, a collapse of the Kim Jong-il regime or a mass defection of the
people, according to government sources in Seoul.
The so-called Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029 will authorize the entry of South
Korean and U.S. troops into the North in case of those sudden changes.
"The warlike forces classified 'the emergency situation' into 'a regime change'
in the dignified DPRK (North Korea), 'the spread of WMDs' and nonsensical
'rebellion,' etc. Their concoction of such farcical events which can never happen
in the DPRK is an unpardonable provocation to it," the Rodong Sinmun, the North's
major newspaper published by the Workers' Party, said in a commentary. It was
carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
Reported discussions of the action plan have long provoked North Korea, while
concerns have also surfaced in the South that a military intervention may trigger
counterattacks from the North and spread to a full-scale war on the peninsula.
"Those forces went the lengths of simulating all sorts of nonsensical events and
citing them as pretexts for mounting preemptive attacks on the DPRK," the paper
said.
"It is a ridiculous and rash action for the warmongers at home and abroad to make
desperate efforts to dare do harm to the DPRK. This only brings to light who is
chiefly to blame for disturbing peace on the Korean Peninsula and pursuing
confrontation and war."
hkim@yna.co.kr
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