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SLUG: 2-301311 North Korea
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DATE=03/26/03 TYPE=NORKOR (SHORT) NUMBER=2-301311 BYLINE=AMY BICKERS DATELINE=TOKYO CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: North Korea says it is withdrawing from liaison talks with the U-S led United Nations Command which monitors the armistice ending the Korean War in 1953. As V-O-A's Northeast Asia correspondent Amy Bickers reports, Pyongyang is accusing the United States of violating that agreement and of planning to attack the Stalinist state. TEXT: North Korea said Wednesday it will no longer send delegates to the liaison officers' meetings held regularly at the inter-Korean border. North Korean and U-S military officers representing the United Nations Command gather there nearly every week to discuss security issues, even though the two countries have no diplomatic relations. The North is indicating that the cut-off is in part a protest against the annual month-long U-S-South Korean war games now underway. Pyongyang has previously objected to the drills, but this year, with the U-S led war in Iraq underway and tensions over the North's nuclear program escalating, its reaction has been fierce. On Wednesday, the North accused the United States of "pushing the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war." The North also issued a warning to Japan, saying it faces "self-destruction" if it launches two spy satellites on Friday. Regional tensions have been rising since October, when the United States said the North admitted to an illegal nuclear weapons program. (SIGNED) NEB/HK/AB/MH |
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