N Korea 'ready for war with South'

• Last Updated: February 19. 2009 3:02PM UAE / February 19. 2009 11:02AM GMT

Models of a mock North Korea Scud-B missile, centre right, and other South Korean missiles displayed at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea. AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

SEOUL // North Korea is ready for war with the South, it said today, just hours before the US secretary of state Hillary Clinton was set to arrive in Seoul for talks on defusing the North’s military threat.

North Korea has repeatedly threatened in recent weeks to reduce the South to ashes. Pyongyang is thought to be readying its longest-range missile for launch in what analysts say is a bid to grab the new US administration’s attention and pressure Seoul to ease up on its hard line.

“[The South Korean president’s] group of traitors should never forget that the [North] Korean People’s Army is fully ready for an all-out confrontation,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed military official as saying.

Clinton said in Tokyo on Tuesday, at the start of her first foreign trip since taking office, that a North Korean missile launch would be “very unhelpful”.

The South’s foreign minister warned a launch would be met by sanctions and further isolation for the reclusive state.

Reports in the South said North Korea has been assembling its Taepodong-2 missile, which is designed to carry a warhead as far as Alaska. The same missile fizzled and blew apart seconds after it was launched for the first and only time in 2006.

South Korea’s defence minister was quoted by local media as saying the North could test-launch the missile in about two or three weeks. A leading local daily quoted intelligence sources as saying it could be as early as next week.

South Korean officials have said they are also worried about North Korea holding a short-range missile test toward a contested Yellow Sea border off the west coast of the peninsula which has been the scene of deadly naval fights between the rival Koreas.

Analysts said the North may provoke a minor skirmish but they did not expect a major conflict because Pyongyang’s huge but ill-equipped army is little match for South Korea and its major ally the United States, which positions about 28,000 troops on the peninsula.

The North said it may be forced to counter strike if it felt threatened by joint US and South Korean military drills announced yesterday. The annual drills will be held in March.

“If bellicose US forces and South Korean puppets dare wage aggression against us wrapped up in foolish delusion, we will explode our might ... and ruthlessly destroy the invasionary forces,” KCNA said.



* Reuters