NKorea's Kim says regime 'invulnerable'

Japan, SKorea would seek UN action over NKorean launch: envoy
Japan and South Korea will seek steps against communist North Korea if it goes ahead with a planned rocket launch in defiance of a UN resolution, Seoul's top negotiator on the North said Monday. Pyongyang last week notified international aviation and maritime agencies that it would launch a communications satellite April 4-8. Seoul and Washington say the launch is a pretext to test the Taepodong-2 -- Pyongyang's first missile technically capable of reaching North America. Japan and South Korea will take "appropriate measures" if the North launches the rocket, Wi Sung-lac, Seoul's top negotiator on the North, said in Tokyo after meeting counterpart Akitaka Saiki and Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone. He said both sides "agreed a missile launch by North Korea would violate the UN Security Council resolution" that was imposed in 2006 after North Korea tested both a long-range missile and an atomic bomb. "We agreed this issue would be discussed at the Security Council," Wi said. Japan, which has been developing a missile defence system with the United States, has said it is ready to shoot down a missile headed for its territory. Pyongyang has said it would regard a missile interception as an act of war.

by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) March 15, 2009
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il believes his communist regime is "invulnerable", state media said Sunday, as tensions mounted over a planned rocket launch and a border closure.

Kim made the remark as he watched one of his artillery units perform a live-fire exercise, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, failing to give a date or location for when Kim made the comments.

"Our socialist fortress is invulnerable and our revolutionary cause is sure to win one victory after another as we have these steel-like elite ranks," Kim said, according to KCNA.

The communist state last week notified international aviation and maritime agencies that it would launch a communications satellite April 4-8.

Seoul and Washington say the launch is a pretext to test its Taepodong-2 missile -- the first one technically capable of reaching North America. It would be the third long-range missile test since 1998.

The North on Monday switched off military phone and fax lines, used to approve border crossings with the South, and put its 1.2-million-member army on combat alert to protest an ongoing annual US-South Korean military exercise.

It says the exercise involving tens of thousands of troops is aimed at launching a "second Korean War," while Seoul and its ally Washington insist it is a routine annual defensive drill.

The border with the South remained shut for a third consecutive day Sunday, stranding hundreds of South Koreans in the North.

Seoul's Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek urged Pyongyang to allow businessmen and investors to travel freely to and from the South Korea-funded industrial site in Kaesong, just north of the border.

"North Korea's unilateral and unfair action like this not only undermines inter-Korean accords but also violates its own regulations," Hyun said Sunday at a meeting with southern businessmen.

A group of 72 South Korean businesses operating in Kaesong warned that their production would come to a halt due to a lack of raw material unless the crossings resume in a week.

Seoul's unification ministry has reported that 427 people were not allowed to return home from Kaesong on Friday and Saturday.

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NUKEWARS

SKorea warns North of UN action over rocket launch

Seoul (AFP) March 13, 2009
South Korea warned Friday of United Nations "countermeasures" after North Korea set dates for a satellite launch seen by Seoul and Washington as a disguised test of a missile which could reach Alaska.

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