- (AFP) -- Pyongyang made a fresh call for a non-agression
pact with Washington as Seoul rejected fears the United States might launch
a military strike on North Korea's nuclear facilities.
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- The pro-peace statements from both Koreas came amid mounting
fears that the crisis over the North's nuclear programmes might spin out
of control following the interception of a US spy plane by North Korean
jet fighters on Sunday.
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- The Pentagon on Tuesday said it was deploying 24 long-range
bombers in the Pacific to deter the North's threats, further raising the
temperature.
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- "What we need is a legal guarantee to be provided
by a treaty as valid as international law," said Rodong Sinmun, the
official daily of the North's ruling Korean Workers Party.
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- "The US should not flee from its heavy responsibility
for spawning the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula but promptly opt
for direct talks with the DPRK (North Korea) to conclude a non-aggression
treaty with the DPRK."
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- The United States has refused to initiate direct talks
with North Korea and recently said it will only address how Pyongyang can
stand down its twin nuclear weapons and power programs in a multilateral
forum.
-
- North Korea has rejected this approach, and Washington's
strategy appeared to go nowhere during Secretary of State Colin Powell's
tour of Asian regional powers last week.
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- In Seoul, Unification Minister Jeong Se-Hyun said fears
of a US attack, heightened by a face-off between a US spy plane and North
Korean fighter jets on Sunday, were "groundless".
-
- In a South Korean radio interview, Jeong played down
the confrontation over the Sea of Japan, saying it was part of the North's
campaign to press the United States for one-on-one talks.
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- "That kind of a scenario is nothing more than groundless
speculation," Jeong said, when asked whether the United States would
use the military option to end the five-month crisis over North Korea's
nuclear weapons programs.
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- Jeong was speaking after the United States announced
it was sending a dozen B-52s bombers and a dozen B-1 bombers to the the
western Pacific to build up a deterrent. About 2,000 US airmen were expected
to deploy with the bombers. Masao Doi, Chief of Media Relations of the
18th Wing Public Affairs in Japan's Kadena airbase, said US forces would
continue flying such "legal" surveillance flights in international
airspace despite Sunday's interception.
-
- Although the RC-135S spy plane returned to base safely,
Sunday's incident was the most serious between the Cold War rivals since
the crisis erupted in October when North Korea allegedly admitted to US
officials that it had kept up a nuclear weapons research program in breach
of a 1994 accord.
-
- It has since made moves to resume the production of plutonium
at a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon that was suspended under the 1994 accord.
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- The US military reinforcement is likely to anger the
North, which has been edgy since the start of a major US-South Korea joint
military exercise on Tuesday.
-
- The annual exercises, called RSOI/FE 03, will continue
throughout South Korea until April 2, backed by a US aircraft carrier to
be deployed near the Korean peninsula.
-
- Since the crisis erupted in October last year, Pyongyang
has ditched a major anti-nuclear treaty, test-fired a missile into the
Sea of Japan, kicked out foreign arms inspectors and fired up a reactor
at its Yongbyon nuclear plant.
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- In the latest escalation, four North Korean MiG fighters
Sunday scrambled to intercept a US surveillance plane, buzzing the four-engined
plane at very close range.
-
- The incident came as the United States has been trying
to put the North's nuclear issue on the back burner as it prepares to unleash
a war against Iraq.
-
- South Korean analysts say North Korea, which fears it
could be the next target of a preemptive US attack, is seeking to force
Washington to start talks with Pyongyang before the United States finishes
with Saddam Hussein.
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