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DPRK criticizes US nuclear protection of ROK

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-21 21:11

SEOUL, ROK: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has accused the United States of plotting atomic war against it, saying President Barack Obama's recent reaffirmation of nuclear protection of the Republic of Korea (ROK) only exposed his government's intention to attack.

A South Korean man passes by a diagram showing the theory of uranium atomic nucleus at the Seoul Science Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, June 20, 2009. [Agencies]

In what would be the first test for the new UN sanctions against the DPRK, ROK media also reported Sunday that a DPRK ship sailing toward Myanmar via Singapore was being shadowed by the US military over suspicion that it may be carrying illicit weapons.

US officials said Thursday that the US military had begun tracking the ship, Kang Nam, which left a DPRK port Wednesday.

ROK television network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, reported that the US suspected the 2,000-ton-class ship was carrying missiles and other related weapons toward Myanmar — which has faced an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union and has reportedly bought weapons from the DPRK.

Related readings:  DPRK media: Enforcing UN resolution means war  Seoul urged to accept DPRK demand on factory park  DPRK missile: US ups defense ante  Officials: US tracking suspicious ship from DPRK  DPRK may fire missile toward Hawaii: Report

The report said the US has also deployed a navy destroyer and has been using satellites to track the ship.

The ROK's Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has spiked since the DPRK defiantly conducted its second nuclear test on May 25. The DPRK later declared it would bolster its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war in protest of UN sanctions for its test.

Obama reaffirmed Washington's security commitment to the ROK, including through US nuclear protection, after a meeting Tuesday in Washington with ROK President Lee Myung-bak. Obama also said the UN sanctions will be aggressively enforced.

In its first response to the summit, the DPRK's government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said that Obama's comments only revealed a US plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.

"It's not a coincidence at all for the US to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing the DPRK every day and watching for a chance for an invasion," said the commentary published Saturday.

The weekly also said the North will also "surely judge" the Lee government for participating in a US-led international campaign to "stifle" the DPRK.

The DPRK says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the US, which the country routinely accuses of plotting to topple it. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in the ROK, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons deployed there.

On Saturday, an ROK Foreign Ministry official said Seoul has proposed five-way talks with the US, China, Russia and Japan to find a new way to deal with the DPRK's threats.

The US and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, the official told The Associated Press, requesting anonymity because he was discussing a plan still in the works.

The DPRK and the five countries began negotiating under the "six-party talks" in 2003 with the aim of giving the country economic aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program. In April, however, the DPRK said it was pulling out of the talks in response to international criticism of its controversial April 5 long-range rocket launch.