South Korean President Lee Myung-bak yesterday called for serious talks with North Korea, warning that the rivals must not repeat their “dark history” and urging Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programs.
Lee made the remarks in a nationally televised speech amid worries over rising animosity following Monday’s launch of annual South Korea-US military drills, which Pyongyang calls a rehearsal for invasion.
The North’s state media said yesterday that the drills could cause a “nuclear catastrophe” on the Korean Peninsula.
“The Korean nation cannot afford to lag behind the currents of the times, repeating the dark history of yesteryear,” Lee said, referring to the Korean War and the subsequent decades of violence and tension. “Now is the opportune time to open a new kind of future on the Korean peninsula.”
Lee said South Korea could provide aid to the North and is ready to resume inter-Korean talks “anytime with an open mind.”
He said, however, that “the North should step forward for serious dialogue and cooperation and refrain from developing nuclear weapons and missiles.”
Lee, who spoke at a ceremony marking Korea’s independence uprising against Japan’s colonial rule in 1919, also said North Korea must take responsibility for “armed provocations.”
Lee refrained from using harsh rhetoric against North Korea, a marked contrast from past speeches that vowed stern and immediate retaliation against any new attacks by the North.
Anger in the North was rekindled this week, as South Korea and the US pushed ahead with annual military exercises despite Pyongyang’s threat to retaliate.
As Lee spoke, North Korean state media called the drills a dangerous plot to invade the North and warned of a full-blown war on the peninsula.
“Chances for dialogue and peace on the Korean Peninsula have evaporated, and the danger of war is increasing,” the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. “If a war breaks out on the peninsula, only a nuclear catastrophe will be triggered.”
Later yesterday, the North’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement accusing Washington of attempting to use the drills as a chance to increase tensions and bolster its regional military power. However, it said the North is still ready for dialogue.
“The United States must be responsible for all consequences that its military provocation will cause,” said the statement carried by KCNA. “We are ready for both dialogue and confrontation.”
The North has also threatened to enlarge its nuclear arsenal and turn Seoul into a “sea of flames” in response to the drills. The country’s military separately warned it would fire at South Korean border towns if Seoul continues allowing activists to send propaganda leaflets to the North.
Yesterday, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin ordered front-line officers to quickly respond to any North Korean attacks.
“Don’t ask whether to shoot back or not. Act first before reporting it,” Kim said, according to the Defense Ministry.
Soldiers were ready to return artillery fire within only a few minutes after a North Korean attack, the chief of an artillery unit reported to Kim, the ministry said. It didn’t identify the officer.
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