North Korea Says Truce No Longer Valid - WSJ.com

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North Korea Says Truce No Longer Valid

SEOUL – North Korea on Wednesday delivered an angry response to South Korea's decision a day earlier to join an effort to halt atomic-weapons trafficking, saying it would no longer stick to the armistice agreement that halted fighting in the Korean War of the 1950s.

North Korea threatened a military strike against the South Wednesday, a day after Seoul joined a U.S.-led initiative to intercept shipments suspected to be weapons of mass destruction. Video courtesy of Reuters.
"Any minor hostile acts, including cracking down on or searching our peaceful vessels, will be an unacceptable infringement of our republic's sovereignty," said the statement, issued by North Korea's military and broadcast by state media. "We will respond with immediate and strong military strike."

North Korea routinely uses war-like words in official statements when it is upset with actions taking place in the United Nations or the three countries it considers to be enemies – South Korea, Japan and the U.S.
The latest statement reiterated an earlier one that said South Korea's full participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative would amount to a "declaration of war" against it.

North Korea has used that phrase dozens of times since the 1980s, including when U.S. President Ronald Reagan called it a "terrorist state" and when U.S. President George W. Bush called it part of an "axis of evil."

It has threatened to quit the armistice agreement less often, analysts said and a review of Pyongyang's official announcements and news accounts showed.

"Our military will no longer be bound by the armistice," the North's statement said on Wednesday. It went on to blame the U.S. for persuading South Korea, which it called a "puppet," to go along with the effort to monitor and halt the movement of atomic weapons and related components.

North Korea last said it wouldn't adhere to the 1953 armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in August 2006, when it expressed anger at the joint military exercises conducted annually by U.S. and South Korean forces.

In response to the latest statement, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea's military said, "Our military will restrain North Korea's additional provocation and manage the current situation stably."

The exchange added to a climate of tension that's been building since North Korea in February began preparing for weapons tests. On April 5, it tested a multi-stage missile for just the third time and on Monday it tested a nuclear explosive for the second time.

The tests showed North Korea's nuclear-weapons development program is advancing. The U.S. and other nations since the early 1990s have tried to persuade Pyongyang to stop such work, using a variety of tactics including incentives and penalties. Monday's test drew strong condemnation not just from the countries North Korea considers to be enemies but also its two closest allies, China and Russia.

In Washington Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned that North Korea would face consequences because of its "provocative and belligerent'' actions, the Associated Press reported. Mrs. Clinton also underscored the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan.

She said that talks at the United Nations "are going on to add to the consequences that North Korea will face,'' but she did not provide specifics.

Analysts say the rapid succession of weapons tests and fiery statements may mark a change from a longtime pattern in which North Korea made a provocative action and then sought economic aid or security concessions not to do it again.

That view was reinforced by market activity in recent days. Though usually unfazed by Pyongyang's words and actions, investors showed some concern over the latest volleys. South Korea's Kospi stock market index fell .73% on Wednesday, a day when most other markets in Asia posted solid gains. The Kospi also performed worse than other Asian markets a day earlier, when it dropped 2%.

"I don't think they will turn their rhetorical harshness into action," said Park Young-ho, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute of National Unification in Seoul, a think tank affiliated with the government agency that deals with the North.

But he added that references in the statement to a maritime border dispute with the South – over possession of five islands in the Yellow Sea – suggest the North's next step may be to try to provoke the South Korean Navy.

More of the North's latest statement was directed at the U.S., which it often portrays as ready to invade the country or to oust its authoritarian government.

"There is no bigger misjudgment than thinking that the law-of-jungle kind of U.S. logic could work with us," the statement said. "If needed, we have great military power and our own striking means to conquer a neighboring target at a stroke or to hit vital U.S. points at a blow."