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North Korea accuses US of preparing attack
North Koreaâs army accused the United States of preparing to attack and warned it could abandon a 50-year-old accord that ended the Korean war. The accusation came after South Korea said 12 days ago that the United States agreed to withdraw a large portion of its troops guarding the truce village of Panmunjom in the four-kilometer-wide (2.4 mile) buffer zone by October.Panmunjom and its adjacent joint security area (JSA) have been guarded by North Korean soldiers and US troops since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice accord. South Korean officials said the US troop cut in Panmunjom was designed to give South Korea more control over the defense of its border with North Korea. But a North Korean Peopleâs Army (KPA) spokesman said the US troop withdrawal showed it was giving up its duty as a signatory to the armistice accord (AA). At the same time, "The US is massively shipping ultra-modern arms and equipment into South Korea and staging war exercises against the DPRK one after another...," the official said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "The US decision to take even its small force out of the JSA in Panmunjom and DMZ (demilitarized zone) against this backdrop indicates that the US preparations for a preemptive attack upon the DPRK (North Korea) are under way at a final phase," he said. "This situation prompts the KPA side not to allow such a thing ... and compels it to take whatever strong measure to protect its own security," he said. North Korea will "comprehensively examine the issue of security" in Panmunjom and "all the provisions" of the accord, he said. The spokesman said the United States should not forget it was technically at war with North Korea and "in an unstable state of armistice as they have not yet settled the belligerent relationship." Posted by: Lux 2004-04-25 |
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