North Korea Urges South to Stand Against U.S.

TOKYO -- In a classic effort to divide allies, North Korea called on Seoul on Saturday to intercede against U.S. “aggression,” given that any war on the peninsula could devastate South Korea as well.

“The situation on the Korean peninsula is inching closer to the phase of serious crisis,” North Korea’s state-run daily newspaper Rodong Shinmun said in a commentary. “There is no guarantee that the U.S. war hawks, seized by extreme war fever, would not ignite a war of aggression.”

North Korea’s latest salvo followed a warning Friday by President Bush that the U.S. is keeping all options open -- a reference to the possible use of force -- as the administration tries to halt Pyongyang’s nuclear programs.

U.S. officials say North Korea admitted in October that it has a program to enrich uranium -- apparently for atomic weapons -- despite its agreement in 1994 to freeze nuclear activities. Tension has risen in recent months as the U.S. cut off fuel aid and Pyongyang kicked international nuclear inspectors out of the country, withdrew from an arms control treaty and moved to restart a nuclear reactor.

“This war will not bring disasters to the North only,” the paper continued. “It is, therefore, a task facing all Koreans in the North and the South to avert the danger of a war and protect peace on the Korean peninsula.”

North Korea has long sought to create and exploit differences between Seoul and Washington as well as Tokyo in a bid to divide its adversaries and ultimately win aid and a nonaggression pact from the United States.

“The modus operandi is quite classical,” said Nicholas Eberstadt, an analyst with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “They’re trying to split America and South Korea.”

Although it’s unclear what move Pyongyang might make next, Eberstadt said future efforts to ratchet up tension might include ending its self-declared missile moratorium, threatening a missile launch and -- if it really decides to command attention -- actually conducting one.

North Korea’s scare tactics would be seriously undermined, however, if it threatened such an exercise only to see a missile blow up on the launch pad. That’s one reason North Korea didn’t announce its last launch before it happened. In 1998, Pyongyang stunned its neighbors when it shot a missile over Japan.

Meanwhile Saturday, South Korea’s ruling party issued a rare public criticism of Washington’s handling of the standoff with North Korea.

“We are closely watching as to what the real intention was regarding ... President Bush’s comments,” the Millennium Democratic Party said. “North Korea and Iraq are different. We make it clear that there must be no mistake in decision-making.

“North Korea’s recent activities cannot be praised,” continued the statement, attributed to deputy spokesman Chang Chun Hyong, “but we cannot but express concern as to whether emotions have interfered in the United States in resolving the North’s nuclear problem.”

Incoming South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun has walked a fine line in recent weeks. He was elected in December after calling for reduced reliance on the U.S. But since then, he’s taken a more moderate stance, sanctioning the presence of the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea as a cornerstone of security and prosperity.

U.S. troops have been put on alert for possible deployment in the Pacific in case North Korea initiates an attack in East Asia. Pyongyang has responded by treating the alert as an outright deployment foreshadowing an imminent attack.

U.S. officials said this month that satellite images indicate that North Korea has moved fuel rods around its Yongbyon reactor complex, possibly including some of its 8,000 spent fuel rods. Spent fuel rods can be reprocessed to extract plutonium fuel for nuclear warheads. However, there’s no proof that reprocessing has begun.

“If the U.S. moves to bolster aggression ... are unchecked, the whole land of Korea will be reduced to ashes and the Koreans will not escape horrible nuclear disasters,” North Korea’s official news agency said Friday, quoting the government’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland.