"It is also meant to protect South Korea, too, with warm compatriotism," the paper added in an analysis which took aim at the Grand National Party (GNP).

"The GNP group is raising a hue and cry over the war deterrent of the north which protects them too, while uttering no bad word about the nukes of the US which threaten the nation," it said.

The GNP has savaged the Seoul government's engagement policy with the North since the October 9 nuclear test, and called for tougher sanctions on Pyongyang.

"The GNP gentry is a group of traitors utterly indifferent to the fellow countrymen and the destiny of the nation," the newspaper said.

It took particular issue with GNP calls for two inter-Korean projects -- the Mount Kumgang tourist resort and the Kaesong industrial estate -- to be shut down after the test. The Seoul-financed projects have earned the North almost one billion dollars since 1998.

"These traitors are desperately insisting on suspending the tour of Mount Kumgang and the project of the Kaesong industrial zone, icons of undertakings for national reconciliation and cooperation," said the analysis carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The South Korean government announced Monday it will not take any new steps under UN sanctions to punish North Korea for its test and will not join a US-led initiative to inspect cargo to and from the North.

earlier related report
North Korea Accuses US Of Deploying Atomic Bombs In South korea
Seoul (AFP) Nov 13 - North Korea on Monday accused the United States of using South Korea as a nuclear outpost by deploying some 1,000 atomic bombs in the country.

The North's Korean National Peace Committee said the United States should be denounced for posing the greatest threat of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula.

"South Korea has turned into the biggest nuclear outpost in the Far East with the deployment of about 1,000 US nuclear weapons of different types and their delivery vehicles," the committee said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

South Korea declared in 1991 that it was free of nuclear weapons after US forces withdrew tactical nuclear arms.

But the North's committee demanded the United States remove all nuclear weapons from South Korea.

"It is quite preposterous for the US to take issue with the DPRK (North Korea) over its nuclear deterrent for self-defense, while keeping mum about the criminal nuclear arms build-up it has perpetrated," it said.

North Korea called itself a nuclear-armed state following its nuclear test on October 9.

Rodong Sinmun, the North's ruling communist party newspaper, said the country's nuclear weapons program was designed to protect South Korea from a US nuclear threat.

"It is also meant to protect South Korea, too, with warm compatriotism," the paper said in a commentary Monday.

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