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N.Korea back in brinkmanship game

SEOUL: North Korea's latest move in a game of brinkmanship on the Korean peninsula is designed to force the United States into negotiations, analysts and diplomats said on Friday.

On Thursday, Pyongyang announced it would no longer recognise the buffer zone between the two Koreas.

"North Korea is attempting to strike a tough position to press Washington to agree to peace talks," said Park Hun-ok, a senior fellow at Seoul's Institute of North Korean Studies.

North Korea's announcement, carried by Pyongyang Radio and the Korean Central News Agency, said it would not carry out its duty under the armistice agreement "concerning maintenance and control" of the Korean border and the Demilitarized Zone.

The four-km zone is a key element of the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, serving as a buffer to avoid military confrontation.

The North's announcement immediately raised tension in the peninsula, with the South responding that it would retaliate against any North Korean provocation.

Seoul stated after an emergency meeting of security-related ministers that the North's action was a "declaration that it will unilaterally scrap the armistice agreement and stage a new military provocation. This will never be tolerated".

Park said North Korea managed to overcome difficulties in the early 1990s by resorting to brinkmanship over its nuclear programme.

"With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, North Korea faced a crisis at the time. But with nuclear threats it went toe-to-toe with the United States for a diplomatic victory," he said.

North Korea signed a landmark nuclear accord in 1994 under which Washington promised economic and diplomatic assistance.

"North Korea again faces a crisis because of food shortages and huge economic problems, and it is back on the brinkmanship game," Park added.

A Westerm diplomat said Pyongyang appeared to believe the short-cut to break out of diplomatic isolation was to sign a peace accord with the United States, shutting out South Korea.

"North Korea thinks the South is seeking a policy of strangling Pyongyang. It believed Seoul is in the way of its efforts to improve ties with the U.S. and Japan," he said.

"They are hoping to open a floodgate for international cooperation by signing a peace agreement with the United States."

Pyongyang has long wanted to wash its hands completely of the truce arrangements and Thursday's announcement capped its steps to destroy the system that left two Koreas technically at war more than 40 years after the end of the Korean War.

"This action is the latest in a series of steps taken by the DPRK (North Korea) to unilaterally dismantle the armistice agreement since they withdrew from the military armistice commission in April 1994," a U.S. military spokesman said.

The commission is a watchdog body overseeing the truce. Since 1994, the North has also banned U.N. monitors from entering its territory and closed facilities they had used at Panmunjom, the only crossing point in the Korean border.

In February, North Korea proposed a temporary accord with the United States as a step towards replacement of the armistice agreement. Washington, for its part, backed South Korea's stand that a peace treaty should chiefly be an inter-Korean affair, with only supporting roles for China and the United States, the two major outside forces which took part in the Korean War.

Analysts in Seoul said the North would continue to escalate rhetoric against the South and even launch a small-scale provocation, possibly at remote islands, to build up pressure against Washington.

Last week, Kim Kwang-jing, first vice minister of the North Korean army, said new war on the Korean peninsula was likely.

"What is the point now is not whether a war will break out in the Korean peninsula or not, but when it will be unleashed," he said.

On Friday, the chairman of North Korea's parliament, Yang Hyong-sop, said the situation on the Korean peninsula had been driven "to the brink of war", Pyongyang media reported.

"Such comments are not inconsistent with their past practice. The North makes statements of this type as a kind of stage-setter," the Western diplomat said.-Reuter