[Kabar-indonesia] Shots fired amid rising tensions over North Korea

[Joyo at aol.com]

Agence France-Presse
October 7, 2006

Shots fired amid rising tensions over North Korea

South Korean troops fired dozens of warning shots at North Korean soldiers 
who crossed the heavily defended border, ratcheting up tensions after Pyongyang 
said 
it would test a nuclear weapons.

Military authorities here said the troops opened fire after five North Korean 
soldiers crossed into the no-man's land dividing the two sides which remain 
technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice.

"The North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line and came 
some 30 meters (yards) south. They retreated after our troops fired warning 
shots," an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff told AFP Saturday.

"We fired some 60 warning shots, including live ammunition, with intervals," 
he said. The North Koreans, one of who was armed with a rifle, returned to 
their side about an hour later.

It marked the first time since May that North Korean soldiers have crossed 
the highly sensitive border and comes amid heightened tensions following 
Pyongyang's announcement that it plans to test a nuclear weapon.

The UN Security Council unanimously agreed Friday to press North Korea to 
drop its plans to test an atom bomb, which Japan said could be detonated this 
weekend.

Pyongyang gave no immediate response to the UN move but renewed its call for 
the United States to withdraw its forces from South Korea and said the risk of 
war was increasing.

"The ongoing 'reorganisation' of the US forces in South Korea is part of the 
arms buildup and a prelude to a war of aggression against the DPRK," the North 
Korean news agency KCNA said, quoting from a statement by the Committee for 
the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.

The United States has stationed tens of thousands of troops here since the 
end of the Korean War but wants to cut the current 29,500 to 25,000 by 2008. It 
also wants flexibility to deploy them elsewhere in the region if necessary.

"Due to such moves the situation is getting tenser and the danger of a 
nuclear war is further increasing on the Korean Peninsula as the days go by," the 
North Korean statement said.

"The US should pull its aggression forces out of South Korea and its vicinity 
at once."

Meanwhile, neighbouring Japan and South Korea on Saturday welcomed the United 
Nations' tough line and warned the reclusive North to be ready for the 
consequences if it follows through with plans to test a nuclear weapon.

"Should North Korea carry out a nuclear test despite the common concern 
expressed by the international community, Japan believes the Security Council 
should swiftly adopt a resolution that contains stern measures," Japanese Foreign 
Minister Taro Aso said in a statement.

South Korea also warned the North would be held "wholly responsible for all 
the consequences" if it exploded an atom bomb and urged it to return to 
six-nation disarmament talks.

In addition, a wide-ranging diplomatic dialogue over the nuclear crisis is 
set to get underway among North Korea's neighbours.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday will embark on his first trip to 
China and South Korea since taking office. The newly elected premier said he 
would seek common ground with his neighbours over the nuclear crisis.

Japan took a hardline stance on North Korea, including economic sanctions, 
when the communist state test-fired missiles in July, but South Korea called for 
a calm response and accused Tokyo of heightening tensions.

China, North Korea's main political ally, has also favored a more 
conciliatory approach towards Pyongyang.

In Seoul, a senior foreign ministry official said Saturday that Chun 
Yung-Woo, South Korea's chief delegate to the six-party talks, would visit Beijing on 
Monday for talks with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei.

"Aside from messages of warning to North Korea, diplomatic efforts to resolve 
this issue through dialogue and negotiations are being pursued as well and 
consultations with the Chinese side are being carried out in this context," the 
official told Yonhap news agency.

He said North Korea was under round-the-clock surveillance and that so far 
the South Koreans had spotted no unusual movements that might suggest a nuclear 
test was imminent.

But Japanese vice foreign minister Shotaro Yachi, on a visit to Washington, 
said Pyongyang's resolve to test its first atom bomb should not be 
underestimated.

"We discussed the possibility that the test would occur this weekend," Yachi 
said after talks with US deputy national security adviser Jack Crouch, in 
footage broadcast by Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

"They will probably go ahead and do it as they had that tone in their 
declaration," Yachi said. "It possibly means they are already very prepared."

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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