N Korea warns South against joining US sanctions

Seoul, Sept 15: North Korea warned the South today against joining international moves to apply sanctions against Pyongyang and said ties would suffer and a war could break out if Seoul cooperated with the United States against it.

The warning issued in the North's official media came after US President George W Bush and South Korea's Roh Moo-hyun agreed to continue efforts to reopen dialogue with the North.

Washington is widely believed to be looking to put more pressure on Pyongyang following the communist state's launch of a barrage of missiles in July and Pyongyang's refusal to return to six-country nuclear talks for almost a year.

''South Korea, prodded by the outside forces, is joining in the racket to put international pressure upon the North and backing those forces in the sanctions against it, quite contrary to the interests of the Korean nation,'' the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.

A UN Security Council resolution passed in July after the North's missile launches called on member states to stop trade and financial transactions with the North that could help Pyongyang's missile and weapons of mass destruction programmes.

North Korea has said it regards sanctions against it as a declaration of war.

In a separate statement, the North's agency handling ties with the South said South Korea's military was stepping up moves to wage war against the North by establishing an artillery defence command and stocking up on military equipment.

''This is arousing serious concern among all Koreans as this dangerous arms build-up indicates that the South Korean military bellicose forces are putting spurs to the preparations for a war against the North,'' a North Korean spokesman said.

''We will never remain a passive onlooker to their frantic preparations for a war against the North but strongly react to them,'' the spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement.

Both Koreas remain technically at war under a truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. Political ties have warmed rapidly in the six years, but military tensions remain high.

REUTERS