Defiant N. Korea Vows to Confront U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea - Showing no willingness to ease tensions over its nuclear weapons program, North Korea vowed Wednesday to build an army-based "powerful nation" and defy pressure from the United States.

North Korea said it fears a possible U.S. military attack, but President Bush said he was confident the North's nuclear issue can be resolved through diplomacy.

"This is not a military showdown. This is a diplomatic showdown," Bush said Tuesday.

North Korea, in its New Year's Day message, called on its people to unite under "the banner of the army-based policy" and build a "powerful nation" to counter a possible U.S. invasion. The reality is that North Korea is impoverished and dependent on outside food aid, much of it supplied by the United States via the U.N. World Food Program.

"The United States is now becoming all the more frantic in its moves to stifle (North Korea), openly clamoring about a preemptive nuclear attack on it," said the message, carried on the country's foreign news outlet, Korean Central News Agency.

The English-language message did not mention rising international concern over Pyongyang's decision to reactivate its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, but stressed the importance of uniting around the country's military.

In an apparent effort to take advantage of an upsurge in anti-U.S. sentiment in South Korea, the message urged "all the Koreans in the North and the South and abroad" to join in confronting the United States.

"It can be said that there exists on the Korean Peninsula at present only confrontation between the Koreans in the North and the South and the United States," it said.

U.S. and South Korean officials say their alliance is strong, though North Korea often has tried to drive a wedge between them.

Some South Koreans worry that the nuclear dispute could trigger armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula, the world's last Cold War frontier. More than 2 million troops are massed on both sides of the Korean border, while about 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.

South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun, who won a Dec. 19 vote partly because of surging anti-U.S. sentiment among his people, on Tuesday warned against "blindly following U.S. policy."

"The United States should consult fully with South Korea, rather than making a decision unilaterally and then expecting South Korea to follow it," said Roh, who begins a five-year term in February.

Roh supports outgoing President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine" policy of engaging North Korea. They believe dialogue is the only viable way to resolve the North's nuclear issue peacefully.

South Korea sent a senior diplomat to Beijing on Wednesday to try to win Chinese support in persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. Lee Tae-sik, South Korea's deputy foreign minister, will meet Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Thursday, South Korean officials said.

U.S. and South Korean deny a rift is developing between the two close allies over the nuclear dispute.

But in the past two days, both Roh and Kim have expressed concern that Washington might impose heavy economic pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions, and this could backfire and harden the North's stance.

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said, "I don't think anybody has suggested at this point imposing sanctions."

Anti-U.S. sentiment was evident on the streets of Seoul on New Year's Eve, when about 22,000 South Koreans gathered near the U.S. Embassy to protest the deaths of two teenage girls accidentally killed in June by a U.S. military vehicle.

Two U.S. soldiers whose vehicle killed the girls were cleared of negligent homicide charges in U.S. military courts last month.

Some protesters shouted for an end to the U.S. military presence in South Korea.

Tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions intensified Tuesday when Pyongyang expelled two U.N. inspectors monitoring its nuclear facilities and signaled it might pull out of the global nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

North Korea's ambassador to Moscow, Pak Ui Chun, told Russian news media Tuesday that his country intends to free itself from its last legal obligations under the international nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which seeks to confine nuclear weapons to the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China.

In recent weeks, North Korea removed monitoring seals and cameras from nuclear facilities at Yongbyon that were frozen under a 1994 deal with the United States. It says it is willing to resolve concerns over its nuclear program if the United States signs a nonaggression treaty, but Washington rules out any talks before the North changes course.

N. Korea Tries to Divide U.S., S. Korea
34 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!

By SANG-HUN CHOE, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea - Sensing an opportunity in widespread anti-American sentiment in South Korea, North Korea urged South Koreans on Wednesday to back its confrontation with the United States over its nuclear program.

"It can be said that there exists on the Korean Peninsula at present only confrontation between the Koreans in the North and the South and the United States," the communist state said in its New Year's message.

It is North Korea's long-standing strategy to drive a wedge between Seoul and its chief ally, Washington. But its emphasis on "cooperation" with South Korea comes at a time when Seoul is criticizing a possible U.S. plan to use economic sanctions to force North Korea to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program.

North Korea's overtures are also driven by economic needs, experts said.

Under President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine" policy of engaging North Korea, South Korea has launched a series of unfinished inter-Korean projects, including a cross-border rail link and tourist and industrial parks, that would bring the impoverished North badly needed investment.

North Korea, which can hardly feed its 22 million people without outside relief, risked losing key sources of aid in the recent weeks by expelling U.N. inspectors and threatening to pull out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to free its nuclear facilities from international controls.

"North Korea has been digging deeper into isolation these days, and the United States is pouring hot water into the hole to force it to come out," said Koh Yoo-hwan, a North Korea expert in Seoul's Dongkuk University.

"At this hard time, North Korea increasingly sees that South Korea is its only friend, as it tries to avoid the brunt of U.S. diplomatic pressure," Koh said.

Although North Korea's recent decision to reactivate its nuclear program angered much of the world, it stirred little reaction among ordinary South Koreans. U.S. officials say North Korea may use its nuclear facilities to build atomic bombs.

In recent years, however, North Korea has revamped its image among many South Koreans as it engaged in a series of reconciliation projects, such as reunions of aging Koreans separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

"It is an urgent national task to avert the danger of war and preserve peace on the Korean Peninsula at present," North Korea's New Year's message said, accusing the United States of preparing to launch a "pre-emptive nuclear attack" on it.

"There is neither reason nor condition for the fellow countrymen to strain the situation and disturb peace against the fellow countrymen as the North and the South are heading for reconciliation, unity and reunification," said the message, carried on the country's foreign news outlet, Korean Central News Agency.

Both South Korean President Kim and President-elect Roh Moo-hyun, who takes office in late February, insist that North Korea not develop nuclear weapons.

But they have expressed concern that Washington might impose heavy economic pressure on Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions, and that this could backfire and harden the North's stance.

On Wednesday, a senior South Korean diplomat arrived in Beijing to seek China's support in persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Lee Tae-sik, South Korea's deputy foreign minister, will meet Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing Thursday, South Korean officials said.

South Korea also plans to send a vice foreign minister to Moscow later this week. China and Russia are virtually the only countries that maintain friendly ties with the communist North, and they have urged a peaceful solution to the rising tension.

Some South Koreans worry that the nuclear dispute could trigger armed conflict on the peninsula. More than 2 million troops are massed on both sides of the Korean border. About 37,000 U.S. soldiers back the South Koreans.

President Bush said Tuesday that he was confident the North's nuclear issue can be resolved through diplomacy and denied that a rift was developing with South Korea.

"This is not a military showdown. This is a diplomatic showdown," Bush said.

Anti-U.S. sentiment is evident on the streets of Seoul. Thousands of South Koreans have joined street rallies to protest the deaths of two teenage girls accidentally killed in June by a U.S. military vehicle.

The protesters also denounced U.S. policy toward the North, and some demanded an end to the U.S. military presence in South Korea.

North Korea recently removed monitoring seals and cameras from its nuclear facility at Yongbyon that was frozen under a deal with the United States in 1994. It says it would resolve concerns over its nuclear program if the United States signs a nonaggression treaty, but Washington has ruled out any talks before the North changes course.

One of the two nuclear inspectors expelled by North Korea, Missak Demirdjian, arrived Wednesday at Vienna's Schwechat airport on a flight from Beijing. He fended off all questions, saying only: "We, of course, hope to go back as soon as possible."

The policy of our government now, whatever it seems, is all geared toward national interest; with a view to political exigencies. There are some very bright conservatives in the Bush Administration, thankfully, and thankfully they're keeping their cards close to their vests.

As mentioned earlier, the world's become a lot smaller and threats exist today that the Founders couldn't have imagined. They knew that in their day a credible foreign menace would have to cross a vast ocean with relatively immense resources to subdue and take America. Today, a "rogue nation" that could might launch a single ICBM at one of our major cities with potentially devestating consequences to the entire country.

The Founders contemplated everything when they drafted the Constitution. The Constitution's limitations on federal government needed to be amendable to deal with future events, unforeseeable at the time.

Circumstances have changed a lot since the founding and federal policy has changed to deal with the change, as the Founders intended. Social programs and redistribution of wealth, which are now such a priority of government, were expressly prohibited by the Constitution and for very good reason. We're within our rights to oppose what's happening on this front and we're doing it. Re-posturing against changing international threats the Founders would have considered wise and necessary.

I'm with you in detesting neo-globalism. However, when foreign enemies (to date, Islamists, but other enemies as well) have the means and have communicated the desire to attack us from a great distance (and now we've been attacked), probably we should do something about it.

We'd all love nothing more than to remain isolated from the insanity of the wide world. The realities of today simply won't allow it if we wish to remain free and prosperous.

Happy New Year!

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