North Korea says 'prepare for war'
North Korea's leader placed his army on readiness to “annihilate the enemy†on Friday as the regime officially renounced all non-aggression pacts with its southern neighbour.
Kim Jong-un escalated his inflammatory response to a new round of United Nations sanctions by ordering troops on the border with South Korea to prepare for war.
But China, North Korea’s only powerful ally, publicly urged “calm and restraintâ€ÂÂ.
Mr Kim chose a highly sensitive location for his address to North Korean troops, visiting military positions facing the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, where a North Korean bombardment killed four people and wounded 19 in 2010.
Mr Kim “stressed the need for the soldiers to keep themselves fully ready to go into action to annihilate the enemyâ€ÂÂ. The country’s official news agency added that, if war broke out, he “instructed them to deal deadly blows at the enemiesâ€ÂÂ.
Mr Kim’s open talk of a new Korean war came after his regime threatened America with a “pre-emptive†nuclear strike. The belligerence came in response to the unanimous vote in the UN Security Council on Thursday to impose further economic sanctions. These measures followed North Korea’s third test of a nuclear bomb last month.
In addition, Mr Kim has ended the hot-line between North and South, which was designed to defuse crises, and renounced various non-aggression pacts between the two countries.
Despite all the posturing, experts believe that North Korea is highly unlikely to start a war. South Korea benefits from a US security guarantee, meaning that Mr Kim would almost certainly lose any conflict. North Korea has a small nuclear arsenal, but it does not yet have an operational missile capable of striking the US.
A spokesman for South Korea’s defence ministry pointed out: “If North Korea attacks South Korea with a nuclear weapon, Kim Jong-un’s regime will perish from the Earth.â€ÂÂ
He added that “mankind would not forgive†the use of nuclear weapons “against a free and democratic societyâ€ÂÂ.
President Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s newly elected leader, described the situation as “very graveâ€ÂÂ, adding that she would “deal strongly with North Korea’s provocationsâ€ÂÂ.
Daniel Pinkston, from the International Crisis Group in Seoul, said North Korea’s objective was not to start a war but to coerce the US and other countries to back down from the sanctions.
“It’s a game of brinkmanship and they keep ratcheting up the pressure in the hope that the other side will cave in,†he said.
The biggest danger was that fighting could break out by accident as both sides raised their alert level.
“Somewhere along the line, there could be a mistake,†he said.
China joined the US to vote in favour of the UN Resolution 2094, which imposed the latest sanctions on North Korea.
The foreign ministry in Beijing on Friday urged “calm and restraint†from all sides, adding: “The current situation on the peninsula is highly complex and sensitive.â€ÂÂ
China’s patience with North Korea appears to be wearing thin.
Zhang Liangui, a Korea expert at the Central Party School, which trains communist cadres, said the fact that North Korea had chosen to press ahead regardless of Chinese objections and international pressure “shows their internal policy, and their policy to the outside world, is hardeningâ€ÂÂ.
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