Thursday February 19, 12:09 PM

NKorea says it's prepared for war with SKorea

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea said Thursday

it was "fully ready" for war with South Korea,
stepping up its rhetoric just hours before US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was
scheduled to arrive in Seoul. "The Lee
Myung-Bak group of traitors should never
forget that the Korean People's Army is fully
ready for an all-out confrontation," a
spokesman for the army General Staff said.
The statement to the North's official Korean
Photo: AFP
Central News Agency (KCNA) was the
latest in a series of increasingly strident threats against President Lee's
conservative government, which have raised cross-border tensions. South
Korean Defence Minister Lee Sang-Hee has said a limited naval clash may break
out around the two countries' disputed border in the Yellow Sea. Lee and other
officials also say the North is preparing to test its longest-range missile, which
could theoretically reach Alaska. Minister Lee said Wednesday it could be ready
for launch within two or three weeks. Clinton, who is scheduled to arrive at 10.45
pm (1345 GMT), has said any missile test would be "very unhelpful" for US-North
Korean relations and has urged Pyongyang to drop its harsh rhetoric. Last month
the North announced it is scrapping all peace accords with the South including a
1991 pact that recognised the sea border as an interim frontier. The border was
the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002. Seoul's unification ministry,
which handles cross-border relations, said the 1991 pact should be respected. It
urged the North to halt its "denunciations and provocative behaviour" and accept
an offer of dialogue. In a separate dispatch, KNCA blasted plans for a regular
joint exercise by South Korean and US forces, saying they would pay a "high
price" for conducting what it described as war preparations. The warning came a
day after the US-South Korean combined forces command announced that the
annual "Key Resolve/Foal Eagle" drill would take place from March 9-20 across
the peninsula. "The war preparations by the US and South Korean authorities
that bring the fiery winds of war to the Korean peninsula will exact a high price as
they are against peace and the times," it said. The command has told North
Korea the exercise is purely defensive. It will involve a US aircraft carrier, 26,000
US troops and an undisclosed number of South Korean troops. President Lee
has angered Pyongyang by abandoning his predecessors' policy of engagement
and virtually unconditional aid to the North. He says major economic aid should
be linked to denuclearisation and pledges to review summit pacts reached
between Pyongyang and his predecessors.