South Korea will not back down to North Korea after it raised global concerns last week with a defiant nuclear test and threats to attack its capitalist neighbor, the South’s president said yesterday.
The UN Security Council is looking to punish the North for its nuclear test, which drew international condemnation, while a South Korean daily said US officials are moving to clamp down on Pyongyang’s meager international finances.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak delivered his stern warning to the North in a nationally televised Memorial Day speech honoring the country’s war dead at Seoul’s National Cemetery.
“I would like to make it clear that there will be no compromise against things that threaten our people and security,” Lee said, in a reference to the North’s May 25 underground nuclear blast and recent short-range missile tests.
“North Korea should keep its promise to denuclearize the peninsula and come forward to inter-Korean dialogue,” he said.
He also sought to reassure South Koreans: “There is no reason to fear as we have a strong defense.”
Lee called on the military to have perfect defense readiness during his tour to Osan Air Base near Seoul, where he met top South Korean and US military officials, his office said.
North Korea appears to be readying to test a long-range rocket that could hit US territory.
Pyongyang’s official media KCNA reiterated a warning of “strong action” yesterday, blaming the South for increasing military tension.
It said South Korea “should not make any reckless move” as “anyone making provocation will be met with strong action and unimaginable punishment.”
But it stayed silent about the fate of the US TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who worked for former US vice president Al Gore’s California-based Current TV.
The two women were arrested March 17 while reporting about the trafficking of women. It’s unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China.
The reporters’ trial had been scheduled to begin on Thursday, but there has been no confirmation that the proceedings have started.
Analysts say the pair have become bargaining chips in negotiations with the US.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday she hoped the trial would result in their speedy release and confirmed the US had explored sending a special representative to Pyongyang to negotiate for the journalists’ freedom.
“The trial which is going on right now we consider to be a step toward the release and the return home of these two young women,” she told reporters in Washington.
Clinton did not discuss any bilateral sanctions the US was considering but made clear Washington wanted the “strongest possible” resolution to emerge from negotiations at the UN to punish the North for its recent actions.
The two Koreas will hold rare talks next week over a joint industrial park that was once a symbol of reconciliation but has become a flash point for tension between the two states.
North Korea declared all contracts in the park invalid last month in what analysts said was a ploy to squeeze more money from the South. It has also been holding a South Korean worker there for about three months on suspicion of insulting its leaders.
“The North must return our detained employee without condition and guarantee free corporate activities as promised,” President Lee said yesterday.
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