South Korea calls for stronger US ties as troops face withdrawal

SOUTH KOREAN President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday called for a stronger alliance with the United States but said the nation must be prepared for a possible redeployment of US troops in the country.

North Korea yesterday said US reluctance to engage in face-to-face talks about its nuclear ambitions may make a clash inevitable on the world’s last Cold War front, after test-firing a missile that rattled nerves in South Korea.

And as tension mounted on the Korean peninsula and the US prepared for a possible invasion of Iraq, Washington protested to Pyongyang on Monday over a March 2 incident in which North Korean fighter jets intercepted a US spy plane.