WORLD> Asia-Pacific
DPRK threatens retaliation over US, UN sanctions
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-16 17:46

SEOUL: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) followed recent conciliatory gestures toward the US and the Republic of Korea (ROK) with a return to threats Sunday, warning them of "merciless retaliation" over sanctions imposed on its government, as well as nuclear attacks in response to any atomic threats.

Seoul and Washington will kick off annual computer-simulated war games Monday, which the DPRK sees as preparations for an invasion. The US and the ROK say the maneuvers are purely defensive.

"Should the US imperialists and (ROK government) threaten the (DPRK) with nukes, it will retaliate against them with nukes," the DPRK military said in a statement reported Sunday by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

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Despite DPRK's recent conciliatory gestures of freeing two detained US journalists and a South Korean worker, tensions continue on the divided Korean peninsula mainly over the DPRK's nuclear program.

The US is moving to enforce UN as well as its own sanctions against the DPRK to punish it for its second nuclear test in May and a series of missile launches.

The UN sanctions strengthened an arms embargo and authorized ship searches on the high seas to try to rein in the DPRK's nuclear program. They also ordered an asset freeze and travel ban on companies and individuals linked to the program.

If the US and the ROK "tighten 'sanctions' and push 'confrontation' to an extreme phase, the (DPRK) will react to them with merciless retaliation ... and an all-out war of justice," the DPRK military statement said.

A US special envoy responsible for implementing the sanctions plans to visit Singapore, Thailand, the ROK and Japan this week and could travel later this month to China.

Philip Goldberg told reporters last week the measures against the DPRK will continue until it takes irreversible steps to scrap its nuclear program.

On Saturday, ROK President Lee Myung-bak renewed an offer of aid to the DPRK and called for a "candid dialogue" with the DPRK about dismantling its nuclear programs so it can prosper economically.

It was unclear if the aid offer -- which has strings attached -- would prod the DPRK to back down from its promise to restart its nuclear program. Lee has made similar aid offers in the past, but the DPRK has rejected them.

For years, the ROK had been one of DPRK's biggest benefactors, but since taking office early last year, Lee suspended unconditional aid to the impoverished DPRK as part of a new harder-line approach. The DPRK responded by cutting most ties and curtailing key joint projects.

Lee also offered talks on reducing conventional arms and troops along the mine-strewn demilitarized zone, a 2.5-mile (four-kilometer) -wide buffer bisecting the Korean peninsula.

The ROK and DPRK have hundreds of thousands of combat-ready troops and heavy artillery along the 155-mile (250-kilometer) border. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in the ROK as a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.

Meanwhile, Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jung-eun extended her stay in the DPRK for an additional day, the fourth time since arriving in Pyongyang last Monday, her company said, in an apparent bid to try to meet DPRK leader Kim Jong Il to discuss stalled joint projects.