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North cautions S. Korea

— Photo: AP

VOCIFEROUS PROTEST: War veterans during a rally denouncing the decision to hold the Korean summit, in Seoul on Thursday.

SINGAPORE: In the lively atmospherics of a planned inter-Korean summit scheduled for August 28 to 30, North Korea on Friday expressed solidarity with its southern ethnic neighbour. Pyongyang made common cause with Seoul by denouncing the United States over the unresolved hostage crisis involving South Korean aid workers in Afghanistan.

However, an altogether different tune was also sounded by North Korea. It warned not only Washington but also Seoul of a political fallout in the nuclear domain, if they were to hold their annual military exercise to coincide with the prospective summit.

The state-of-the-art command-and-control exercise was decided upon before the summit announcement.

Pyongyang’s Korean People’s Army (KPA) said, in a statement monitored in Seoul, that the military exercise, if held as planned, could affect the movement towards de-nuclearisation of the peninsula. The KPA would fine-tune its “powerful striking means” to face the consequences of “the large-scale war manoeuvres to be staged.” The U.S. would be held responsible for “the catastrophic impact” of the exercise on the ongoing implementation of the February 13 accord on de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. De-nuclearisation, pan-Korea peace and stability, and arms control are among the likely issues on the summit agenda.

North Korea’s National Reconciliation Council, which addresses the possibility of reunification with the southern neighbour, described the hostage crisis as “a tragic incident.” The crisis “would not have happened,” if only the U.S. had “not driven” Seoul into “a war of aggression” in Afghanistan.

The U.S. should, therefore, “take prompt measures to relieve the innocent South Korean civilians of the pain and misfortune” that were caused by Washington’s actions.

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