• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

South Korea dismisses North demands over joint industrial zone

Iran Press TV

Mon May 6, 2013 5:2PM GMT

South Korean government has refused to meet North Korea's demands for reviving suspended operations at a joint industrial complex amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea's National Defense Commission said Sunday that restarting the complex would require the South to end its 'hostile acts and military provocations.'

The commission led by North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, has also asked Seoul to cancel an upcoming military drill with Washington scheduled for August.

The South's Unification Ministry that handles inter-Korean affairs, said North Korea's demands are incomprehensible and unfair.

'The North's demand, as you probably know, is completely incomprehensible and unfair,' Kim Hyung-seok, spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry, told reporters on Monday, adding, 'We urge the North again ... to come forward for dialogue instead of making such unfair demands.'

Meanwhile, the South Korean Defense Ministry said there are no plans to cancel the planned military exercise with the United States.

The Kaesong Industrial Complex has in the past been a symbol of cooperation between the two neighbors. However, it has been shut indefinitely with the withdrawal of all North and South Korean workers back in April.

Tensions began to soar after the United States flew its B-2 nuclear bombers over the peninsula during recent military drills. Pyongyang, in response, threatened to attack the US mainland with nuclear attacks and to enter a war with the South.

Pyongyang has warned that if Washington and Seoul launch a preemptive attack, the conflict "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war."

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) stated in a commentary on Thursday that the escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula is attributable to the US 'heinous hostile policy' toward North Korea.

JR/SS