12-Day Korea-US Military Exercise Will Start Monday
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The government Friday urged North Korea to immediately withdraw its military threat to South Korean flights over its airspace, calling it a violation of international rules and an ``inhumane'' act.
South Korean airliners rerouted 16 flights, that currently use the Kamchatka route, after diverting two flights, according to the Ministry of Unification.
The reaction came one day after the communist state said it cannot ensure the safety of South Korean airplanes over its airspace, slamming Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, the annual South Korean-U.S. exercise involving tens of thousands of troops. The 12-day exercise is scheduled to kick off March 9.
Experts in inter-Korean affairs said Pyongyang's warning was aimed at pressuring Seoul ahead of the exercise with Washington, which according to the Stalinist state is ``reckless warmongering.''
``Amid the worsened relations between the two Koreas, North Korea has gradually stepped up pressure on South Korea. It seems difficult to change this pattern,'' Paik Hak-soon of the Sejong Institute told The Korea Times.
Before the Key Resolve exercise begins, North Korea might be psychologically defensive and aggressive,'' he added.
A defense ministry official did not rule out the possibility of the threat being related to North Korea's moves to launch a missile.
``Since the North's announcement did not mention about ships, the North could possibly launch a short-range missile,'' he said on condition of anonymity.
Late last month, the communist state announced it would send a satellite into orbit as part of its space program, but many outside experts see it as a long-range missile test.
Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman of the South's unification ministry, said, ``Making military threats to normal operations of civilian airplanes is not only a violation of international rules but also an inhumane act, which cannot be justified at all.''
He urged the North to immediately drop the threat to the safety of the airliners.
The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said under the current situation, a military conflict may occur on the Korean Peninsula.
In a statement carried by the (North) Korean Central News Agency, the committee said that the North is ``compelled to declare that security cannot be guaranteed for South Korean civil airplanes flying through the territorial air, and its vicinity above the East Sea.''
Under an inter-Korean agreement signed in 1997, South Korean passenger airplanes have been allowed to fly over North Korea's airspace since April 1998.
According to the ministry spokesman, 5,260 flights passed through the North's territorial airspace and the North was paid up to $6 billion in fees last year.
During military generals' talks between North Korea and the U.S.-led U.N. Command (UNC) Friday, the UNC also called for withdrawal of the threat.
The North reportedly rejected the request, insisting the planned joint drill has led military tensions to a climax.
The U.S. State Department called the North Korean statement ``distinctly unhelpful.''
``Actions such as these are distinctly unhelpful, unwelcome and unnecessary,'' the department's acting deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid was quoted as saying by the AFP.
Despite the blackmail, the annual joint drill will not be affected.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon's press secretary, said he was ``not aware of any component of the exercise which would necessitate flying either Korean or U.S. aircraft into… North Korea airspace.''
ksy@koreatimes.co.kr
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