Seoul: North's warning on flights 'military threat'

Mar 6, 2009, 15:11 GMT

   Seoul - South Korea on Friday condemned North Korea for 'a military threat' and 'an inhumane act,' a day after Pyongyang said it could not guarantee the safety of South Korean civilian aircraft flying in or near its airspace.

   'A military threat to the normal operations of civil airplanes not only violates international rules but is also an inhumane act that can never be justified,' the Unification Ministry in Seoul said.

   South Korea demanded that the North immediately withdraw its threat as South Korean airlines Korean Air and Asiana Airlines redirected their planes that had flown the affected routes.

   Under an international agreement, South Korean airliners are permitted to travel briefly through North Korean airspace on routes between South Korean and US cities.

Speaking from the Indonesian capital Jakarta, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak on Friday renewed calls for North Korea to resume talks.

'We continue to offer dialogue and hope that North Korea will respond positively,' Lee told a news conference after talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the start of a three-day visit.

The United States and South Korea are involved in six-nation talks with North Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

The talks have been stalled, however, over Pyongyang's refusal to allow samples to be taken at North Korean nuclear facilities as part of a procedure for ensuring it has fully disclosed the extent of its nuclear programme as part of the disarmament agreement.

North Korea blames the hold up on the refusal of the other countries to continue providing promised aid shipments.

   The indirect threat to shoot down South Korean planes was made as South Korea and the United States prepared to begin 11 days of annual joint military exercises Monday. Every year, the manoeuvres draw the wrath of Pyongyang, which charges they are a prelude to an invasion.

   The US-led UN Command, which monitors the ceasefire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, called on North Korea Friday to refrain from taking 'any provocative actions' as high-ranking military officers with the UN force and North Korea met on the inter-Korean border.

   North Korea's latest warning to South Korea was 'entirely inappropriate,' it said at the meeting at the village of Panmunjom, four days after the first meeting between generals from the two sides in nearly seven years.

   It recommended the implementation of confidence-building measures to reduce rising tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula.

   North Korea has repeatedly threatened the South this year with destruction, accusing it of engaging in a confrontational inter- Korean policy.

   South Korea has said that its Stalinist neighbour has been preparing for weeks to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile potentially capable of reaching the western US coast, but North Korea has said it is readying a satellite launch.

   In Seoul, the Unification Ministry rejected speculation that the North's warning against South Korean aircraft could be an indicator that the expected launch would soon follow because, it said, airlines of other countries weren't mentioned in the warning.

   In Washington, the US government condemned North Korea's latest threat as 'distinctly unhelpful.'

   Pyongyang should be focused on meeting its nuclear disarmament commitments under the six-nation talks 'rather than making statements that are threatening to peaceful aviation,' State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said Thursday.

   North Korea's threat this week came as the new US envoy, Stephan Bosworth, was in the region for talks with China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.