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South Korea to stand firm despite North's threats
Mon Feb 9, 2009 2:10am EST
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By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's president said on Monday he has no intention of backing down to North Korea, which may be preparing to test-fire its longest range missile and in recent weeks has threatened to reduce its neighbor to ashes.
A top U.S. general said the international community has demanded the North not to test its ballistic missiles and said the state should focus on talks aimed at ending its nuclear arms.
Analysts do not expect a major conflict between the divided Korea's but said the North's saber-rattling was aimed at pressuring Seoul to drop its hardline policy and grabbing the attention of new U.S. President Barack Obama.
"Our government is always ready to sit and talk with North Korea on any issue. But we're not going to rush, because I believe what's important in inter-Korean relations is having unwavering and firm principles," South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in prepared remarks for a radio address.
Lee, who took office a year ago, has angered his destitute neighbor by ending what once had been a free flow of unconditional aid and instead tying the South's handout to progress the North makes toward ending its military threat.
North Korea is making moves to test its Taepodong-2 missile, which has never flown successfully but is designed to eventually hit U.S. territory, and it may also fire short-range missiles toward a disputed sea border with the South to raise tension, news reports said last week citing intelligence sources.
MISSILES RAPIDLY DESTROYED
The commander of U.S. Forces Korea said on Monday the 28,000 thousand U.S. troops in South Korea and the 670,000-strong South Korean military were well prepared to meet any missile threat.
"We work very hard to be able to very rapidly take both the long-range, the short-range, all of the missile systems and the artillery and be able to destroy them if we ever had to go to war," General Walter Sharp told foreign reporters.
"We call on North Korea rather than focusing on ballistic missile technology to instead put their efforts to focusing on denuclearization in a verifiable manner."
The North's official media said it was bolstering its deterrence in the face of what it saw as a U.S. military threat, adding: "Our people want peace, but are not afraid of war."
In what could be seen as a justification for a missile test, North Korea's communist party newspaper said at the weekend "our country, as a member of international society, has a right to enter space and compete for space science technology."
The impoverished North has claimed the Taepodong-2, which fizzled and destructed seconds after it was last test-launched in 2006, is the cornerstone of its space program. Experts said the missile was only for military purposes.
Proliferation experts said the North, which tested a nuclear device in October 2006, does not have the technology to miniaturize a nuclear weapon to mount as a warhead.
Sputtering talks to end North Korea's nuclear arms program have been stalled for months with Pyongyang complaining aid given in return for crippling its nuclear plant is not being delivered as promised in a deal it reached with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. Continued...
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