Nuclear war ‘could break out at any time’, warns North Korea

A NORTH KOREAN fighter plane intruded into South Korea’s airspace yesterday and the communist state, again using strident rhetoric, said nuclear war could break out on the peninsula at any time.

The air incursion, the first by the North since 1983, was a fresh reminder of the tensions awaiting US Secretary of State Colin Powell when he visits the region this weekend.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said in a commentary that “the situation on the Korean peninsula and northeast Asia is so alarming that a nuclear war may break out at any moment.”

The United States, it said, was deliberately sabotaging North Korea’s improvements in relations with Seoul and Japan by “fabricating” a secret Pyongyang nuclear arms programme in a bid to dominate the region.

“The US will get nothing from talking about ‘military counteraction’ against North Korea and maintaining a hardline stance toward it,” said the commentary, issued just days before Powell visits the region.

The South Korean Defence Ministry said the South scrambled six F-5E fighters after a North Korean MiG-19 intruded into its air space. In two minutes the MiG returned across the border over the Yellow Sea.

“We firmly protest this intrusion and strongly demand the North prevent further incidents,” the ministry said, calling on Pyongyang to take “responsible measures.”

The violation of the Yellow Sea border near the site of two deadly naval clashes since 1999 followed a statement from the North Korean military on Tuesday threatening to abandon the armistice which ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

The Korean People’s Army said it would walk away from the 50-year-old truce if economic sanctions were imposed on Pyongyang because of the four-month-old crisis over its suspected drive to manufacture nuclear weapons.

US disagreements with Asian states over how to end the standoff are expected to dominate Powell’s four-day trip to Japan, China and South Korea.

Powell travels to Tokyo tomorrow, to Beijing on Sunday and to Seoul on Monday to attend Tuesday’s inauguration of South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun.

The United States has sought without visible success to persuade regional powers, notably China, to press North Korea to abandon its suspected nuclear programme and favours multilateral talks to urge Pyongyang to do so.