North Korea Masses 50,000 Troops on Border
THE TELEGRAPH: North Korea has completed deployment of about 50,000 special forces along the border with South Korea, amid high tensions over the sinking of a Seoul warship.

The deployment began two or three years ago and seven 7,000-strong divisions are now in place, an unidentified senior government official told Yonhap news agency.

"The threat that North Korea may infiltrate special forces for limited warfare has become real," the agency quoted a separate senior defence ministry official as saying.

The defence ministry refused to confirm the Yonhap report, but President Lee Myung-Bak discussed the North's special warfare capabilities at an unprecedented meeting Tuesday with 150 top officers from all armed services. >>> | Wednesday, May 05, 2010

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North Korea Threatens Full Scale War If Rocket Is Intercepted
THE TELEGRAPH: North Korea says it will wage war on America, Japan and South Korea if any attempt is made to intercept the launch of a rocket it claims is intended to put a satellite into space.

A military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
It has also cut off its border and telephone links with the South in protest at military exercises by American and South Korean troops which began on Monday.

Plans for a launch were first picked up by satellite imagery, with foreign intelligence agencies saying it was a test of a long-range Taepodong-2 missile with the capacity to hit parts of the United States.

The United States said it would shoot down the missile if it headed towards its territory. Japan has suggested it might try to intercept any launch, even if the payload is a communications satellite as claimed by Pyongyang.

"If the enemies recklessly opt for intercepting our satellite, our revolutionary armed forces will launch without hesitation a just retaliatory strike operation," the general staff of the North Korean army said in a statement on state media. It singled out the United States, Japan and South Korea as targets.

"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," it said. >>> By Richard Spencer in Beijing | Monday, March 9, 2009

BERLINER ZEITUNG: Nordkoreas Truppen in voller Kampfbereitschaft

Das nordkoreanische Militär hat im Fernsehen mögliche Schläge gegen militärische Stützpunkte der USA, Japans und Südkoreas angekündigt. Foto dank der Berliner Zeitung
Seoul - Wegen eines Großmanövers der US-Streitkräfte mit Südkorea hat Nordkorea seine Truppen in volle Kampfbereitschaft versetzt und auch die letzte Kommunikationsleitung zum Nachbarland gekappt.

Zugleich warnte die nordkoreanische Volksarmee am Montag vor Versuchen, einen «Satelliten» abzuschießen, den Nordkorea ins All befördern wolle. Ein Abschuss käme einer Kriegserklärung gleich und würde mit Vergeltungsschlägen gegen die USA, Südkorea und Japan beantwortet. Wann der Satellit starten soll, blieb unklar. Für die Dauer des Manövers soll den Angaben zufolge der «heiße Draht» zu Südkorea abgeschnitten werden, der bei Bedarf die Kommunikation zur Lösung akuter Konflikte sicherstellen soll. >>> ©dpa | Montag, 9. März 2009

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North Korea Cuts All Links with South Korea
THE TELEGRAPH: In a significant escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea has cancelled all agreements with the South, claiming that the two Koreas were on the "brink of a war".

The decision by Pyongyang to nullify all military and political accords, including declaring the maritime border between the countries "void", increases the prospect of an armed confrontation on the Peninsula, where over a million soldiers face each other along the Demilitarised Zone that divides the countries.

North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea blamed the South for Pyongyang's decision to sever all links, claiming that the agreements between the two countries were "dead documents".

The neighbours last clashed militarily in June 2002, when they fought a deadly gun battle along the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea.

Pyongyang remains angry over South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's decision last year to cut the amount of economic aid given to the North, until progress was made on disarmament. >>> By David Eimer in Beijing | Friday, January 30, 2009

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Nordkorea will alle Grenzen zu Südkorea schließen
WELT ONLINE: Nordkorea hat die Schließung aller Grenzen zum Nachbarland Südkorea angekündigt. Die nordkoreanischen Streitkräfte unterstellen Südkorea, eine Politik der Konfrontation zu verfolgen. Das Verhältnis zwischen den beiden Koreas hat sich seit dem Amtsantritt des neuen südkoreanischen Präsidenten Lee Myung Bak verschlechtert.

Nach dem Abbruch des Dialogs mit Südkorea will Nordkorea von Dezember an die Landesgrenze zum Nachbarland schließen. Grund für die Maßnahme seien überaus gefährliche Konfrontationen seitens des Südens, teilte die staatliche nordkoreanische Nachrichtenagentur KCNA mit. Südkorea sei von der „wichtigen Maßnahmen“ informiert worden, dass die Volksarmee alle Grenzpassagen über die militärische Demarkationslinie strikt kontrollieren und vom 1. Dezember an sperren werde, hieß es in der von den staatlich kontrollierten Medien veröffentlichten Erklärung. >>> Reuters/AFP/dpa/lk | 12. November 2008

Video anschauen: Japanische Medienberichte haben erneut Spekulationen über den Gesundheitszustand des nordkoreanischen Staatschefs Kim Jong-Il ausgelöst. Dem Fernsehsender TBS zufolge soll Kim im vergangenen Monat einen zweiten Schlaganfall erlitten haben. >>> | 11. November 2008
THE KOREA HERALD: North Korea Threatens to Close Border

The North Korean military yesterday threatened that it will "strictly restrict and cut off" all overland passages of the inter-Korean border from Dec. 1 in retaliation to South Korea's reluctance to implement two summit declarations.

Lt. Gen. Kim Yong-chol, head of the North's delegation to the inter-Korean military talks, sent the phone message to the South Korean military, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.

"We officially notify (the South) that our military will take an actual crucial measure to strictly restrict and cut off all ground passages of the Military Demarcation Line beginning on Dec. 1 as the first (punitive) step," the message was quoted by the KCNA as saying.

"The South Korean authorities' unchanged stance and attitude toward the historic two declarations has been finally confirmed. Despite our repeated warning, the racket of confrontation with the DPRK kicked up by the South Korean authorities including the military, in particular, is going beyond the danger level," the message said. DPRK is the acronym of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

The North stressed the Seoul government should not "forget that the North-South Korea relations lie at a critical moment of full severance." >>> By Jin Dae-woong | November 12, 2008

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