NKorea raises stakes in nuke dispute with missile launches

AFP
Friday, March 28, 2008

North Korea raised the stakes Friday in its nuclear disputes with South Korea and the United States, test-firing several missiles and warning it may slow down work to disable atomic plants.
The actions come one day after the communist state expelled South Korean officials from a joint industrial estate, in protest at the new conservative government's tougher policy towards Pyongyang.

Presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan described the missile launches as part of a regular military exercise. "I believe North Korea will not sour relations with South Korea," he said.

But one analyst said it was "highly possible" the situation would worsen.

"We may see naval clashes (in disputed waters) in the Yellow Sea," said Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies, adding that the North seeks to sway the outcome of the April 9 parliamentary election.

Yonhap news agency said three or four missiles were fired into the Yellow Sea. It said they were Russian-designed Styx ship-to-ship missiles with a range of 46 kilometres (29 miles).

There were several similar launches last summer.

After a decade-long "sunshine" rapprochement policy under liberal presidents, the new Seoul administration is linking long-term economic aid to nuclear disarmament.

It says it will also raise Pyongyang's human rights record. On Thursday in Geneva, Seoul voted for a UN Human Rights Council resolution expressing deep concern at that record.

Full article here.