Pyongyang calls for unity of all Koreans against US

Hindustan Times ^ | January 18 2003 | AFP

[knighthawk]

North Korea on Saturday called for unity of all Koreans, accusing the United States of seeking to drive a wedge between Seoul and Pyongyang, as the two Koreas prepare to engage in a busy week of talks.

South Korea has said that it will use a flurry of upcoming inter-Korean meetings, including talks involving senior cabinet ministers, to urge the North to pay heed to international calls to give up its nuclear ambitions.

"It is an issue of particular importance to achieve great national unity now that the US imperialists seek to deprive the South Koreans of their sovereignty, hinder the implementation of the June 15 North-South joint declaration and enslave the Korean nation," said Rodong Sinmun daily.

The June 15 declaration, signed by South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung and North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-Il in 2000, calls for both Koreas to moving toward peace and reconciliation.

Rodong Sinmun is the official daily of North Korea's ruling Korean Workers Party and its commentary was carried by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"It is high time that all the fellow countrymen united close under the banner of 'by our nation itself,' ... because a very serious situation is prevailing on the Korean peninsula due to the US imperialists' moves," it said.

South Korea and North Korea will hold a series of inter-Korean talks in coming days as international diplomacy intensifies to broker a deal to end the standoff over Pyongyang's decision to restart its nuclear programme.

But North Korea has hinted that it will shun discussion on the crisis over its nuclear ambitions.

Cho Chung-Han, deputy bureau chief of North Korea's Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, said the nuclear issue should be resolved through talks between North Korea and the United States. The Pyongyang committee is in charge of dealing with inter-Korean affairs.

"It cannot be resolved by South Korea," he was quoted as telling the Choson Sinbo, the official newspaper of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

North Korea maintains that the nuclear issue is between the United States and North Korea and has insisted in the past the talks focus on the original agenda of inter-Korean issues such as the connection of roads and railways.

Cross-border railway and road projects have stalled as a dispute rages between the North and the US-led United Nations Command over border-crossing procedures, with the North accusing the United States of meddling in inter-Korean affairs.

In a separate dispatch, KCNA said Saturday that North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il has stressed the need to defend the country's airspace against "evermore undisguised war moves of the enemy."

The order was issued when the supremo of the isolated communist state on Friday visited a flying unit of the (North) Korean People's Army in an unidentified location.

"He expressed satisfaction that all the servicepersons of the unit are firmly defending the territorial airspace of the country to cope with the evermore undisguised war moves of the enemy," KCNA said.

[knighthawk]

Ping

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[11B3]

They're nucking futs.

[knighthawk]

No sane person is a commie and likes it.

[facedown]

"He expressed satisfaction that all the servicepersons of the unit are firmly defending the territorial airspace of the country to cope with the evermore undisguised war moves of the enemy," KCNA said.

All your airspace are belong to us!