[USFK Forums] N. Korea threatens to halt exchanges with Seoul over U.S. exercises

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Tuesday, March 29, 2006

N. Korea threatens to halt exchanges with Seoul over U.S. exercises

2006/03/28 15:07

SEOUL, March 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Tuesday warned inter-Korean relations will worsen, or even come to a complete stop, unless the South Korean government immediately stops its joint military exercises with U.S. forces stationed in the country.

"To stage joint military exercises with foreign forces is a treacherous act of hampering national reconciliation and unity and bedeviling the North-South relations," Rodong Sinmun, an official organ of the North's Workers' Party, said in a commentary carried by the state-run (North) Korea Central News Agency.

The joint military exercises, RSOI and Foal Eagle, between South Korean and U.S. forces began here on Saturday for a week-long run. They are defensive drills aimed at intercepting or preventing possible aggressions from the North.

The commentary claimed the start of the annual military exercises, despite the North's repeated warnings and opposition, showed that the South Korean government seeks "cooperation with outside forces, not national cooperation."
Relations between the communist North and South Korea improved significantly following the historic meeting of their leaders in June 2000.

The newspaper, however, said inter-Korean relations would face "turns and twists," and warned the South Korean tourism project at North Korea's scenic Mount Geumgang would be stopped if the South continues to work with outside forces.

"The worsening of inter-Korean relations will not benefit the South Korean authorities themselves," it said.

"If the inter-Korean relations are bedeviled, tourism to Mt. Geumgang is blocked and visit to Pyongyang stopped, they will be condemned by the South Korean people."
The warning comes after North Korea delayed a scheduled round of high-profile inter-Korean dialogue and visits by South Korean officials and politicians to a joint industrial complex at its border town of Kaesong.

South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok was to hold a four-day meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Kwon Ho-ung, a chief Cabinet councilor, in Pyongyang from Tuesday, but the North unilaterally postponed the meeting until next month.

In a telegram sent to the country's point man on North Korea, Kwon said his country had no choice but to postpone the scheduled round of inter-Korean ministerial talks because "a hostile war exercise and peaceful dialogue cannot coexist."
The unification minister had also planned to visit the joint industrial park in Kaesong, but the North asked him to delay his visit until next month, again citing the start of the joint military exercises here.

Former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, now head of the governing Uri Party, was also scheduled to visit the communist state along with his party members this month.

He, too, has been asked to delay his trip, according to officials at the Unification Ministry.

The Koreas have technically been in a state of war and divided by one the world's most heavily-fortified borders ever since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a cease fire, not a peace treaty.

bdk@yna.co.kr
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