N. Korea warns of military response should Japan intercept its satellite

(ATTN: UPDATES with details, N. Korea's English statement)
SEOUL, March 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea will see any interception by Japan of its
satellite launch as an act of invasion and respond with its "most powerful
military means," the country's state news agency said Tuesday.
"Should Japan dare recklessly intercept the DPRK's satellite, its army will
consider this as the start of Japan's war of reinvasion more than six decades
after the Second World War," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. DPRK is
the acronym of the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea.
Japan colonized Korea for 36 years until its defeat in 1945, a source of deep
animosity that North Korea still harbors towards its eastern neighbor.
The North Korean army will "mercilessly destroy all its interceptor means and
citadels with the most powerful military means," the report warned.
North Korea has told international aviation and maritime agencies that it will
send the experimental communications satellite into orbit some time between April
4 and 8 as part of its peaceful space development program.
The North also said the rocket's booster would fall into waters between the
Korean Peninsula and Japan, while the second-stage booster will fall in the
Pacific.
Japan had earlier suggested that it might shoot down the rocket, but now says it
will intercept only if debris from the launch is likely to land in its territory.
South Korea and the United States have also said they oppose military responses
to the rocket launch.
All three still insist, however, the imminent launch is a cover for testing its
long-range missile technology and warn of U.N. sanctions. They have deployed
warships capable of tracking or destroying missiles to seas near North Korea to
monitor activities around the launch site.
"Japan is taking the lead in this racket though it has committed the biggest
crimes against the DPRK," the North Korean report said.
"They blustered that they would 'intercept' the DPRK's satellite, counting on the
support from their master," it said, referring to the U.S.
"But when their master flinched because of the strong stand of the Korean
People's Army, they found themselves in such a miserable position as to modify
their assertion by uttering that they would intercept it only when the debris of
the multi-stage carrier rocket falls down on the land of Japan," it said.
The North said Tokyo's true intentions are wrecking the six-party talks aimed at
ending its nuclear weapons program and justifying its own nuclear armament.
"Looking back on the history of the six-party talks, Japan has done only wicked
and wrong things obstructive to the denuclearization of the peninsula since their
very start," it said.
Japan has refused to send 200,000 tons of fuel oil, its share of the 1 million
tons of fuel promised to North Korea in return for dismantling its nuclear
facility, demanding Pyongyang account for its citizens abducted by the North in
past decades.
The talks, grouping the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, have been
suspended since late last year due to a dispute over how to verify the North's
past nuclear activity.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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