US still relying on force for solving N Korea issue-Pyongyang gvt

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27/10 Tass 81

PYONGYANG, October 27 (Itar-Tass) - The United States is still relying
on force methods for the settlement of the "North Korean problem,"
observers of the North Korean government's Minju Choson official newspaper
said in a publication on Tuesday.
"The United States considers military threats and direct armed
interference "the most efficient and reliable approach" and the basis of
its strategy towards DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea - the
North's official name)," the newspaper stresses. Pyongyang considers the
South Korean - US Navy joint manoeuvres in the Yellow Sea with the
participation of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George
Washington as manifestation of US "hostile intentions." Besides, North
Korea draws attention to the current development by the United States of a
powerful non-nuclear MOP bomb for destroying bunkers. Pyongyang believes
that such bombs are designed for delivering strikes on North Korean
underground military facilities.
The Minju Choson newspaper writes that these facts prove that
Washington "has decided not to abandon the hostile policy towards the
people's republic." On the contrary, "DPRK is first in the list of
countries which the United States wants to suppress by military means."
"In the present situation in which our republic is facing a threat (from
the United States) we have no other choice than comprehensive
reinforcement of the means of deterrence of war," the newspaper's analysts
stress referring to the building up of North Korea's nuclear potential.
North Korea earlier accused South Korea of "military provocations" in
the area of the inter-Korean boundary line in the Yellow Sea. As was
asserted in a statement (Oct 15) issued by the Naval Command of the Korean
People's Army (KPA) and circulated by the Korean Central News Agency
(KCNA), sixteen South Korean ships intruded into the territorial waters of
the DPRK, "bringing about the risk of an armed clash."
According to the KCNA version, the South Korean side explained its
actions by the need to block North Korean fishing boats' moving southward.
However, it is believed in Pyongyang that "in actual fact, the military
authorities of South Korea seek thereby to protect the Northern Boundary
Line (NBL)" which plays de-facto the role of an inter-Korean sea border in
the west.
NBL had been unilaterally drawn at the end of the Korean War of
1950-1953 by the United States that acted under the flag of the United
Nations. Pyongyang has never recognised the boundary, insisting that it be
shifted southward, to the level of the Military Demarcation Line that
divides the Korean Peninsula into two states.
The statement issued by the KPA Naval Command said, "The intrusion of
the ships of the South Korean Navy into the territorial waters of the DPRK
is in point of fact an attempt by the South Korean military authorities to
heighten tension in that area, which is fraught with conflicts, and again
spoil relations between the North and South."
-0-ezh/gor